Family and Friends, We know many of you were expecting us to have our wedding at the beautiful Maragas Winery in Oregon this September. Apologies to anyone who was really looking forward to that trip (so were we!). Instead, we made it our New Year’s Resolution to simplify our lives. We will be getting married at a private ceremony with our immediate families, but would be honored to celebrate with each and every one of you on March 23 at Laurel Park. You have to admit, watching the second round of March Madness at a racetrack, with over 775 TVs, while betting on the ponies, drinking, eating and socializing with all of you, is way more us. We look forward to seeing you in March!

We met on our first day of classes at the University of Baltimore School of Law. We were lucky enough to be in the same small section that traveled together to all of our larger classes...that often times meant studying together. Ryan: Very quickly, I became Mr. Popular and made tons of new friends to hang out with on the weekends. Marie: I, on the other hand, kept it strictly business and didn't try to make new friends in the beginning. R: I was quite insistent that Marie hang out with us - she seemed funny and smart, although maybe not terribly friendly. M: I was too busy studying and catching up with my many high school friends after two years of living in Texas -- in hindsight I could have done a much better job getting to know our classmates. Wasn’t it enough that I responded to most of Ryan’s text messages?! It took about a year for us to start dating, but once we did we were inseparable. Thanks to Ryan, Marie made plenty of wonderful law school friends.

M: Ryan bought massages for us the week before the proposal, and stayed home from work the day before the proposal to clean the entire house (he sure knows how to put me in a good mood). Early Saturday morning we went to a 7am yoga class with our friend Morgan (another dream come true). R: Meanwhile, Marie's best friend Kelsey snuck into our house to stage the proposal while Marie's other best friend Courtney was heading into town on a plane from Chicago (these two helped me pick out the ring). Obviously, it was a HUGE surprise and she said yes (much less of a surprise)! After the proposal, many of our closest friends and family gathered at a bar to celebrate.