After hearing about each other from a mutual friend who thought it would be a good idea to set us up, we finally met at a party shortly after returning home from college for the summer. By the end of the night, Kyle's cousin smoothly swooped in and suggested numbers be exchanged... between Kyle and Jess' best friend, Caitlin... he clearly missed the memo on who was supposed to be getting set up. Despite the awkward exchange, we spent the next month hanging out and getting to know each other until June 30, when Kyle said, "Well, I guess this is as good a time as any; Do you want to be exclusive?" Ignoring the lack of romance, Jess happily accepted and thus, the adventure began.

Fast forward 8 1/2 years, living in more places than can be counted on one hand, in more than one state, traveling to new places, getting our littlest love, Braego, becoming part of each other's families and creating countless memories, Kyle proposed. When Kyle and Jess first moved to Albany, Jess and Kyle would meet at a park near his work for a quick lunch break picnic. There was this one particular bench near the pond that they would sit at and joke that one day when they were old they would go there everyday and sit at "their bench." On the day of the proposal, Kyle convinced Jess to take Braego for a walk there before heading down to her parents' for a birthday dinner (which was really a surprise party for her birthday). They eventually made their way to "their bench" where Kyle popped the question.