Jordie and I met the old fashioned way - At a College bar, on a Thursday night, offering to buy her a $5 Long Island Ice Tea and using her brother as my pick up line! Here's the fun back story... Jordie's older brother, John, and my brother, Austin, went to UW Lacrosse together and were roommates. Jordie didn't know that Austin had a little brother, but Austin did me a solid and gave me a heads up and told me to, "Check out Winkler's sister - She's on the Volleyball Team." The day before Jordie's birthday, she was going out with a group of girls to celebrate, and their first stop was at Lucky’s (of course 😂). I was already there with a group of friends when all of a sudden a beautiful blonde girl walks into the bar and my jaw hit the floor! There was NO WAY I could just walk up to this older girl who’s surrounded by her closest friends and shoot my shot. After a little pep talk from my friends encouraging me to introduce myself, I finally mustered up the courage to go up to Jordie. Believe it or not, the pick-up line that I used was “Hey, you’re John Winkler’s sister, right?” I could tell she was semi-interested, wondering who I was and how did I know her brother?! The rest of that night came and went, but after that night, I knew I was totally head over heels falling for this girl. A few months had past, and we continued to get to know each other throughout the fall semester. It took me until New Years Eve, 70 long days later, to ask Jordan to be my girlfriend, and I still feel like the luckiest guy in the world 🤍 I love you Jordie Marie. - Arik

Jordie and I were living in Chicago together for 5 years when in February of 2021 we decided to do what every couple in there mid-20's wants to do - move back in with the parents! In reality this was one of the most fun and memorable spring/summer seasons we've had together with our families! Little did Jordan know, before we officially moved out of Chicago I had some big things in the works. Summer was quickly passing by and after 6 months of living with our parents I had an idea that we should get away and go spend a long weekend in Chicago, just the two of us! We drove down on a Thursday night, dined at our favorite sushi spot in the city, and checked into our hotel. Waking up Friday morning, Jordie went to a workout, got her nails done and went shopping - all of her favorite things to do in the City! By the time she was done and made her way back to the hotel I had a picnic all packed up for us and we headed out to North Avenue Beach. This was a special place for us in the city as we'd had several picnics here before and it's one of our favorite views. Now, I'm normally the one who ends up eating most of the snacks in the picnic basket, but today, I hardly ate a single cracker. You could say I was just a little nervous. It's go time - I asked Jordie to go on a little walk out closer to Lake Michigan to take a picture. We walked out to where it was just the two of us, I stopped Jordie and grabbed both of her hands. I told her how incredible of a person she is, what she means to me, how I can't live this life without her, and after 5 minutes of rambling on about how much I love her I finally asked, "Jordan Marie, will you marry me?" and she said YES!!! But wait, there’s more! After I proposed, we made our way up the beach to a restaurant called Shore Club where I said we should grab a drink to celebrate together. But, once we got inside the restaurant Jordie got her final surprise of the day, a group of our closest family and friends were all waiting there for us! It was truly THE best day ever!