In January of 2017, it was a cold night in Ottawa at the end of a school trip that we were both on. Just after midnight in the most romantic spot, McDonald's, we had our first conversation that was just the two of us. Unfortunately, a few hours after that conversation, Andrew flew off to Calgary for the next four months. The time went by quickly though, and we were back at school for the summer semester and that initial conversation was not forgotten. For the first couple weeks we would drag our friends out to summer keggers hoping that we'd see each other. We were successful and were able to continue off from four months ago. It didn't take long before we found ourselves going on dates. We went on our first date May 27th, 2017 which started at Famoso, a pizzeria in Waterloo. Neither of us wanted the date to end, so it continued with a walk in Victoria park and a little healthy competition at a board games cafe. The second date was a hike at a trail in Waterloo where we got lost despite Andrew "knowing where he was going". All of this went by in the first month of the summer semester, and then on June 4th, 2017 we started dating and haven't looked back since.

In September of 2021, after four years since we started dating, we had planned a weekend retreat to the Millcroft Inn and Spa. The Millcroft was a local spot in Caledon where Kate grew up and was a spot that Andrew had visited previously on his parents anniversary. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and decided to take a hike around the grounds of the resort. As we do on most of our walks, we had conversations about life and family, and this one in particular reflected lots on the past couple years of our relationship. Despite Andrew knowing again "where we were going", we ended up lost in a quiet field. That's where Andrew told Kate there's nothing that would make him happier than spending the rest of their lives together, and with that got down on one knee and proposed. After Kate said yes, both of us smiled wider than we ever had before. Happily engaged, we returned to the resort where we had a private dinner overlooking the waterfall and started planning for the wedding that at the time, felt so far away, but is now only a few months away!