We're getting married!

In our senior year of high school, our rival high schools merged. That merge was the best thing that could have happened to us. We happened to meet our second semester of senior year through mutual friends that blended the Barons and Knights and they set us up on a group hangout. We ate breakfast on a snowy January day and very soon after that Jane "DTR'd" and asked Zach, "So what do we want to call this?" The rest is history.

First we were high school sweethearts. We had both basically decided we were going to the University of Michigan for undergrad (Go Blue!) so our love story continued there. We both decided to do a victory lap and do our Masters degrees at U of M where we got our first apartment together. We welcomed Maizie the cat into our little family too. Zach graduated before me from the Ross School of Business and he accepted a job in Utah. Jane had the opportunity to intern at the CDC in Atlanta and so we began our long distance relationship. Jane returned back to school to finish her last year and found a job in Salt Lake City to end the long distance. COVID hit and they recovened in Michigan, adopted Arbor the puppy, and then moved as a unit across the country. Z popped the question in the fall of 2020. We bought C.C. the horse that same fall. Zach got into medical school in the fall of 2021 and so it is still up in the air as to where that journey will take us next. We love doing life together.

Kudos to Zach for planning a surprise proposal during the height of the pandemic. He masterfully scheduled calls for when he was talking Arby for a walk and he went all in on his planning when I happened to be out of town for one weekend that summer. We were back in Michigan visiting and had some plans to help families house shop and check out wedding venues. Shannon, my roommate from college and one of my bridesmaids, "happened" to be in town from Chicago the weekend that we arrived in Michigan and suggested we meet up. Zach "happened" to have set up dinner plans at one of my favorite restaurants in Ann Arbor for that weekend but couldn't join me to meet Shannon since he was "golfing with a friend." So I suggested Shannon meet me at our old stomping grounds. We decided to meet at the Diag (the center of campus) and go from there since there were several of our favorite bars not too far away. As I was walking up to the Diag, I couldn't find Shannon (and she is not easy to miss with her red hair and big personality). But, I saw a handsome man dressed up waiting at the center of the Diag. As I got closer, I saw it was Zach and my heart skipped a beat. He expressed his love and got down on one knee. My response, "Of course!" There were happy tears but I can honestly say it was the most joyful day of my life. Shannon and my other roommate Zoey both came from Chicago to photograph and film the entire proposal. Zach didn't stop there. He got our families and close friends together for a surprise engagement party. I had always wanted a surprise engagment and he delivered. I had a feeling he was going to pop the question soon, but I did not expect him to do it so beautifully on the Diag on September 20th, 2020.

Skiing/snowboarding, watching documentaries, making cocktails, trying vegetarian recipes, sharing TikToks, snuggling our animals, hiking, floating down rivers, trying new breweries, porch talks, comparing Peloton stats, stressing about Michigan football, going up north, making each other try on clothes while shopping, going to National Parks, eating Chipotle after donating blood, and talking about all the ways life could shape up <3