Steve & Gwen met freshman year of college while living on the 3rd floor of Hagerstown Hall - they became fast friends and could often be found together playing soccer, listening to one of Steve's curated playlists while studying, eating buffalo chicken wraps from the diner, and attending UMD sporting events. Michael Storey claims he was the first to realize Steve might see Gwen as more than a friend, but it took her another 2 years to realize she might feel the same. After a summer spent texting each other daily, going to Bonnaroo together, spending time in each others hometowns, and a failed attempt by Gwen to set Steve up with one of her friends, he decided to make a move. Steve invited Gwen to Annapolis for sushi and a sunset boat ride, and as she told her Berwyn roommates about her plans for the night she maintained it was “not a date” because they were “just friends”. Steve worked up the courage to ask Gwen “so how deep in the friendzone am I?" - and after another 4 months of going on dates and long conversations - Gweve was finally a couple.

Steve isn’t one to have an epiphanic experience about the moment he fell in love, or the moment everything clicked and he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Gwen. If he had to attribute one experience that played a pivotal role in his love journey with Gwen, it has to be going on a van adventure together through the Southwest in the Fall of 2019. Anyone who could tolerate him in such close quarters for ten days, go on endless hikes, and share all the wonderment about nature just had to be the one! Coming off of that trip, Steve couldn’t possibly imagine a life that didn’t have Gwen in it. Fast-forward a year (because we all know 2020 was mostly a dumpster-fire), Steve had acquired the ring (after much research) and organized a trip to Siesta Key, FL, where he planned to pop the big question. Not much gets past Gwen, so Steve was pretty much 100% convinced she knew exactly what was coming. On the first evening after they arrived on the key, Gwen was putting on makeup and dressing up for a casual sunset happy hour on the beach (complete with wine and charcutes of course). “Well, guess it better happen tonight!” Steve thought to himself. As the sun started to set and a couple of glasses of wine were consumed to help Steve overcome his aversion to public displays of affection, he got down on one knee to ask Gwen to be his forever (and a bunch of other words that nobody remembers). Since then, Gwen & Steve have wasted no time, fostering multiple lab loves, starting new jobs, and buying a house on their favorite city block. They can’t wait to celebrate their marriage with friends and family at the place where it all began!