Derek was in his first year of graduate PT school and I was finishing up my last year of undergrad when I heard of him through mutual friends. Some of his female classmates referred to him as "Hot Derek", so I felt that I needed to find out who he was. After finding him on Facebook, and after a few pep talks with myself, I finally messaged him. We instantly connected and started talking about our love for music, dogs, the Buffalo Bills, and how we were making it through PT school. We met for coffee and our friendship only grew from there. Our first date was at Romeo and Juliette's, where I realized I had finally found someone who had no shame in finishing a whole pizza by himself. We remained very close throughout all of the fall semester and through winter break, and he *finally* asked me to be his girlfriend on 01/04/15!

For those of you who know us, you DEFINITELY know our proposal. Derek won the Reeds Jenns "Take a Knee" contest through the Buffalo Bills, where he was gifted the proposal of a lifetime. Derek had to keep the secret for a little over a month. I definitely knew SOMETHING was up, and I'll admit, I was a pain about it. Unbeknownst to me, Derek had been in contact with a few of my friends to help set up the scene. My best friend (and Maid of Honor), Andie told me she won 4 VIP tickets to the Bills vs Patriots game on the radio. She has won things before, so I didn't really think anything of it. She asked me if I wanted to bring anyone (she was hoping I would say Derek), but I told her to bring her own friends since she won the tickets. Derek seriously was almost not invited to his own proposal! The day of, we were treated to first row seats in the M&T Bank Club. There was free food and beer throughout the game.. it was basically heaven. We were asked to come down through the tunnel after the first quarter, since the VIP tickets allowed us to be featured on the field! I still had no idea what was actually going on. When we got down to the field, we were standing in the corner of the endzone, watching these HUGE football players crash into each other not even 10 yards away. Then the rest is a blur. If it weren't for the video, I probably couldn't even tell you what happened after that. A pre-recorded video of Derek started playing on the screen, and I turned around and he was on one knee. It was absolutely the best proposal ever and easily the best day of my life! Here is the video of everything that went into the proposal if you'd like to check it out yourself! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjjh6_PC-Zk