We both went to Michigan State University where we were members of the business fraternity, Phi Chi Theta. We were on the same team for a flag football fundraiser, and after getting brutally beat, we walked back to our cars together where Eric had a parking ticket - talking about kicking him while he was down! After exchanging Snapchat information (so millennial of us), we went our separate ways. The very next day, Elena received a parking ticket on campus and sent a picture of it to Eric to laugh at how the bad luck continued. Turns out, the bad luck stopped there because the rest was history between the two of us! PS - neither of us has received a parking ticket since then :)

The last weekend the apple orchards were open in Michigan, we decided to go grab some cider and donuts at Blake's Cider Mill. Once we arrived, Eric was adamant that we walk through the orchards before getting our treats because he wanted to find the "perfect red apple" (which turned out to be pretty difficult as most apples were on the ground at this point in the season). After about 20 minutes of walking through the orchards, Eric found the one and said "I'm going to carve you a picture." Now, you may be thinking, "could he be any more suspicious?" but Elena didn't think anything of it, because 3 years ago, the very first time we went to an apple orchard together, Eric carved "I love you" into an apple. So apple carving is kind of his thing. Anywho, Elena grabbed an apple and said "I'm going to carve something for you too!" She simply wrote "I <3 U" on the apple, which took a total of 8 seconds. Thankfully Eric got a head start, so he was done shortly after she finished hers (not leaving much time for her to wonder what he was writing). Elena handed Eric her carved apple and he was so nervous he took a bite out of the apple, threw it, and quickly said, "now look at mine!" While she was a little upset Eric just threw her masterpiece, Elena quickly got over it when she saw "will you marry me?" carved into the apple and looked up to see Eric down on one knee. Lots of shrieks, tears, and jumping for joy followed, and of course, we celebrated with cider and donuts!