Most couples have a charming story about how they met at a friend's birthday party eating pizza, over a spilled plate of spaghetti in the cafeteria, when a mutual friend introduces you to your perfect person (but they live in another state so you move across the country to be with them), or at a TriDelt/Sigma Nu Champagne picnic. But we actually don't remember when we met...because we were babies. If you've seen How I Met Your Mother, you know that at some point, telling the story of how you met becomes a choreographed routine. Ours goes something like this: We've known each other our entire lives. Our dads have been best buds since high school and were in a rockin 50s/60s cover band that they put together for a talent show, which of course they won. (Pat usually starts the story here while Amanda grabs her phone to show "the picture" - posted below for reference.) We would see each other a couple times a year, but Pat grew up in Chicago, and Amanda grew up in Traverse City. Growing up, we always had a little bit of a crush on each other, but we lived in different states. We finally had our first "official" date in the summer of 2009. In traditional Amanda fashion, our date was pirate themed! She picked him up in her minivan blasting the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack for a fun day of Pirate's Cove putt-putt, dinner at Don's Drive In (because there weren't any pirate themed restaurants), and finished the night watching Muppet Treasure Island. In 2017, everything changed when Amanda moved to Chicago. We were finally living in the same place at the same time, so Pat seized the opportunity and asked Amanda to be his girlfriend. In 2021, we were sick of Chicago winters and decided to move to Austin, TX with our cute, snuggly, teeny-tiny, little itty bitty, baby kitten (Yoshi).

If you know Amanda, you know that she is not a fan of surprises. So when Pat told her to hold June 17th for a "mystery surprise activity", she had about a thousand questions. A proposal has to be a surprise though, right? The day started off with Jeff Madl asking if anyone wanted to get their nails done in a group chat. Confirming first that it wouldn't interfere with the other activities of the day, Amanda was the only one that enthusiastically said yes. What she didn't know was that Pat orchestrated the whole thing. Surprise 1 - accomplished. After coming back with beautiful fingers (and beautiful toes), Amanda was informed of the "dress code" for the evening. They headed downtown to the Peacock Mediterranean Grill for a delightful dinner. This was a special treat for Amanda, since she loves Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food so much. Surprise 2 - achieved. After dinner, we headed out on foot during one of the hottest days of summer in Texas. At this point, Pat had shared what the next stop on our trip would be - a tap dance show at the Long Center. It was a beautiful (and toasty) walk across the river to Pat's perfect proposal spot. The only problem was that it wasn't in a direct path to the Long Center. To coax her over, Pat insisted that they stop by a statue of Stevie Ray Vaughan to take a picture for his dad (but Pat was texting the photographer who was there to capture the special moment). Amanda was unimpressed by this "guy in a poncho", as she so eloquently put it. We eventually made it over to the proposal spot, where Pat got down on one knee and asked Amanda to marry him. For the second time that day, she enthusiastically said yes. Surprise 3 - nailed it. After taking some cute proposal pictures, we finally cooled off with some air conditioning in the Long Center. We attended "It's About Time" from Tapestry Dance, which was so inspiring that Amanda wanted to put her tap shoes back on. Surprise 4 - completed. After all of this excitement, Pat wasn't sure if Amanda would make it for a nightcap, but there was one more surprise in store. Anticipating her positive response to the proposal, Pat planned an engagement party at the Mean Eyed Cat with all of their Austin friends (and her dad, and Kellen). We toasted to our happy news with some of our favorite people and celebrated the start of our new journey together! Final surprise - success. We can't wait to celebrate with you on our wedding day!