Kristen and Kirk exchanged a few messages on the dating app "Bumble" to find that they were both going to be in Lake Geneva, WI for the 4th of July weekend. Kirk had planned to go home for the weekend to hang out with his "bros" and Kristen had planned to attend her annual 4th of July trip at her friend Jennie's lake house in Williams Bay. They did not plan to meet up, but both suspected they may run into each other as there are only a handful of legit bars in the area. It was Saturday night and Kirk and his friends got dropped off at the bar Champs. Meanwhile Kristen and her girlfriends are in an Uber on their way to Champs. Kristen walks in and immediately spots Kirk playing darts and walks right past him (too nervous to make the first move). Kirk's game of darts ended and he had seen Kristen walk in so decides to go out to the patio to find her. Kirk and Kristen begin talking and really hit it off. Both groups of friends mingled for a few hours until Kristen's friends decided it was time to hit Hogs & Kisses for some dancing. Kirk asked for Kristen's phone number and they agreed to catch up again once they were back home in Chicago! Kirk asked Kristen on a proper date and 3 days later they went to Taco Joint in Lincoln Park. They spent the remainder of summer 2016 inseparable and the rest is history!

The fateful day was October 5th but when it finally arrived it wasn’t the nicest of days. I would describe it as being as close to a rainy day as possible without actually raining, so I was concerned that the plan to propose on our rooftop was going to be derailed. I decided I had to just go for it and figure out a way to get Kristen up to the roof if only for enough time to propose. I picked up some meat and cheese on my way home from work to have with some wine. I laid it all out on a platter and poured some wine. After we had a glass, I came up with the rationale that I really wanted to go to the rooftop because it could be the last decent night we could have. This was mildly convincing at best because once we were on the rooftop she wanted to stay in the inside portion where it was warm. So, we sat down inside and I had to come up with another excuse to move outside. There was a fireplace going right next to where we sat and the combination of the heat from the fire, the wine, and my nerves caused me to start getting a little hot Thankfully Kristen was becoming a bit warm from the fire as well so she agreed we could move to the outdoor balcony. We sat at a table and finished our wine and platter of goodies - my nerves building the entire time. As we got up to head back inside I got down on my knee and asked her to marry me. She said yes and cried a little. While she was recovering from the shock I went inside to grab the bottle of champagne I had snuck up there earlier. We sipped the bubbly and celebrated just the two of us. We headed back down to our apartment and shortly thereafter Annie and Sean arrived as the final surprise. Not that it bothered me but I am pretty sure Kristen cried more when Annie came in than when I put the ring on her finger. We made our way to the sushi restaurant, RED, for dinner where we continued the celebration. We ended the night at Genna’s Lounge where we met up with some more friends who happened to be in town from New York.