Gianni and I met at a game night that was hosted by the college ministry at our church! I was pretty upset to find a cute boy at the event since I had just come from getting a spray tan and was sporting some oompa-loompa resembling skin. Luckily, it wasn’t enough to run him off, and after bonding over our mutual love of marvel movies and board games, we quickly became friends. Late night donut runs & post-church iced coffee soon became regular occurrences, and we started dating a couple of months later in November of 2018.

As usual, the summer of 2022 was a busy one, but there were a few days toward the end of June that Gianni and I had specifically blocked off as time we would spend together. He ended up booking a last minute flight to one of our very favorite places— Colorado! After hiking about 10 miles on our first day there, we somehow managed to wake up early the next morning to catch sunrise at the Garden of the Gods. With sleepy eyes and a package of pop-tarts in hand, I was pretty unsuspecting. Gianni popped the question shortly after sunrise while we were exploring the park and surrounded by beautiful scenery. It was a truly special moment!