Shayne and Rachel initially met at the University of Maryland through a mutual friend and to make a long story short: it was not love at first sight. Over the following few years, they ran into each other once in a while until late 2015, when Rachel started a job at the company where Shayne worked and moved to Mt. Vernon in Baltimore...where Shayne lived. Rachel and Shayne began hanging out regularly and quickly became good friends. Not-so-secretly, however, Shayne had been harboring a crush on Rachel, and month by month, he worked his way out of the friend zone. One night, at the illustrious Claddagh Pub, Shayne finally admitted his feelings to Rachel, and the rest is history!

In August, after a long year of attending the weddings of everyone they know, Shayne finally decided on a day to propose. Unbeknownst to Rachel, he had invited friends from out of town and made a weekend full of plans. That Saturday, they went to lunch in Mt. Vernon at a restaurant steps away from Rachel's first apartment. Rachel began to get suspicious that morning, when Shayne decided to shave — on a Saturday! — and was fretting about what to wear. Just in case, Rachel decided to put on a dress. At lunch, Shayne hardly ate and ran to the bathroom about a dozen times. Not weird at all! Afterwards, they walked around the neighborhood to visit their favorite spots and ended up by the Washington Monument (Baltimore's version). Rachel pretended not to see the person with a camera hiding in a bush as Shayne got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. She said yes, though she briefly reconsidered later that day when he lured her to a surprise engagement party. The person in the bush turned out to be Shayne's sister, Alyssa, in a disguise. Rachel is still convinced that the out-of-town friends' visit was a coincidence.