We first met back in 2019 at P.F. Chang’s. Mike was a waiter and bartender, and Kaitlyn was working the takeout counter. At first, we were just coworkers who spent more time laughing and joking around than actually working. Mike’s very first chance to impress Kaitlyn was a total failure—she asked him to grab her Chick-fil-A while he was on break, and he forgot. Mike was convinced he had ruined his one shot. But, in true Mike fashion, he turned it into a running joke—eventually, that goofy persistence grew on her. There were plenty of other silly moments between us at P.F. Chang’s, including one where Kaitlyn wondered out loud who her “Chang’s soulmate” might be. Mike didn’t miss a beat: “Maybe I’m your Chang’s soulmate.” According to Kaitlyn, that was the first time she started looking at him a little differently. Fast forward to early 2021, when what started as harmless joking around started to feel like something more. Mike technically made the first move — if you count conducting mock “compatibility interviews” in the back room as a move. The running joke was that we’d do one on Valentine’s Day. To Mike, it was just another excuse to make Kaitlyn laugh. But after working an exhausting Valentine’s Day shift, exchanging little gifts, and still wanting to hang out after all of that, it became obvious this wasn’t just a joke anymore. Our first official date was at Patrizia’s in Red Bank. Kaitlyn was still recovering from wisdom teeth surgery and on all kinds of medication, which meant she spent most of the night sick (and Mike spent most of the night nervously wondering if he had ruined things again). Luckily, we got a proper “redo” date at The Melting Pot, and that one went much smoother. Over the years, we’ve grown together through all kinds of milestones. When we met, Mike was waiting tables and Kaitlyn was packing fortune cookies into to-go bags. Now Mike is a financial advisor, and Kaitlyn is a laboratory sales specialist and closet designer. We’ve traveled everywhere from Tennessee and Arizona to Boston and Florida, but our favorite trip together was to Charleston, South Carolina, where we fell in love with the Southern charm, breathtaking architecture, and friendly people. And, of course, there are the little things that make our relationship “us.” We’re proud AMC A-list members and try to see a movie every week. We’ve also played about 4,000 games of Anagrams on our iPhones (with heated debates about who’s the ultimate champion vs. the ultimate loser). In 2025, during a private dinner on the beach in Cabo, Mike proposed. It wasn’t exactly a surprise — we had been ring shopping and talking about marriage for a while — but it was still perfect. Now here we are, excited to celebrate the next chapter of our story with all of you!