Here Comes The New Mr. & Mr. Farrahar-Rudolph!

The story of how Jason and Ryan met is a funny one. Initially, the two connected through the Illinois State University roommate matcher in 2018. They were able to message a bit back and forth and exchanged contact information. Ryan had already found some else to room with, so they stayed in touch through social media. Flash forward to move-in day on campus. After settling in to his new space, Jason actually texted Ryan to hang out, but Ryan never responded! They’ll both tell you a different story as to why, and you’ll have to agree with both sides. It wasn’t until early February of 2019 that the pair finally met. Ryan met one of Jason’s close friends by happenstance in the dining hall, who then invited Ryan to come hang out in their dorm. That’s where they finally met after so long, and it truly was love at first sight for them both. After that first meeting, one of Jason’s friends wanted to set the boys up together since Jason was just getting out of a crappy relationship. It only took one more time hanging out before the two were inseparable. Butterflies were in stomaches, texting was happening until 2am every night, and there was rarely a day they didn’t see each other. The last two weeks of freshman year, Jason basically lived in Ryan’s tiny dorm room with him and his roommate, and the rest is history.

Jason had gotten the blessing to marry Ryan from his parents, Chris and Mark, during family Christmas at the end of 2021/ beginning of 2022. Now all there was to do was plan an actual engagement. Originally the plan was for Jason to invite a ton of friends and family for pictures during graduation at Illinois State University, where the pair met. But Ryan caught on to that plan pretty quickly and changes had to be made. Jason did promise Ryan an engagement by the end of 2022, so here's the way it ended up happening: Everyone in Bloomington-Normal buzzed about the local LGBTQ+ bar, the Bistro. After Jason & Ryan turned 21 they started attending Thursday night karaoke, and very quickly becoming friends with the regular patrons and the staff. This karaoke night became a weekly tradition until the end of our college days. When Jason and Ryan moved to Champaign there was a promise made to that Bistro friend group that we would come back and do karaoke still since they were only less than one hour away. Thanks to Jason's dad, Steve, Jason was able to get matching rings for him and Ryan. Jason then worked with a coworker of Ryan's at the time to ensure he had a day off on Friday, and made a group chat with those friends from the Bistro to set a date and time. These friends went above and beyond to make sure Ryan was unaware and Jason had everything he needed to make the moment special. A photographer was hired to capture this special moment without either of us knowing. Ryan got up on stage and sang one of his infamous karaoke night songs, "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne, and when he was done Jason got up on that stage and got down on his knee. Friends brought confetti cannons, ensured that the staff and crew knew what was going on and helped facilitate others in the crowd, even held phones so parents could be facetimed and share this moment live with the couple. This truly couldn't have happened so smoothly without those other people involved. Thank you all for being part of our special day and sharing all of these beautiful moments with us throughout our relationship.