Mark first met Kristi in the summer of 2017 in North Carolina. We both started our careers at the same company in a rotational development program. Each year, the company would bring everyone in the program to North Carolina for a week of development sessions. At the end of the week, most of us would stay the weekend and rent a house on the lake and take boats out on Lake Norman. Mark lived in Augusta, GA at the time and coordinated the boat for his group while Kristi lived in Nashville, TN and was in charge of arranging a boat for her group. They were given each other’s numbers by a mutual friend (thanks Jeff!!) to ensure they all rented from the same marina. We found an island on the lake where we set up games and cooled off in the water. Mark took this opportunity to get to know Kristi and thought things went pretty well throughout the day. However, when the weekend ended and we all went back to our respective states, the communication stopped. Fast forward about 8 months. Mark has graduated from the program and moved back to Minneapolis. Kristi had one rotation left and moved to Minneapolis for her final rotation. Ironically enough, the same friend who shared our phone numbers also moved to Minneapolis and was having a housewarming party we both attended. Mark started talking with Kristi again remembering things went pretty well last time (he thought) but we just lost touch. But the problem here was…Kristi didn’t remember meeting Mark in NC! It was as if we were starting fresh.

We started talking a bit more now that we lived in the same city. A couple of months after our re-meeting, Mark thought things were going well and decided to ask Kristi out to dinner. Kristi had some apprehensions about dating a co-worker and told him no. Thinking that was a bit too formal, he asked her to go to lunch, again she told him no. Kristi was playing hard to get and Mark made one more attempt before throwing in the towel. Kristi had mentioned she became a Nashville Predators hockey fan during her time in Nashville and wanted to go to a game but tickets were hard to come by. In March, the Predators played against the Minnesota Wild in Minneapolis. On the day of the game, Mark was able to find two tickets and asked Kristi if she wanted to go. Although she was apprehensive, she couldn’t pass up the offer and said yes! We got to the arena and Kristi proceeded to walk towards the up escalator. Mark redirected her to their section entrance where they kept walking down, closer and closer to the ice. We were in the 10th row! Kristi offered to pay for all the beer and snacks because the seats we so amazing. Mark refused but Kristi was persistent and we eventually settled to split the cost. After the game, both of us were having a great time and decided to grab another drink at a hockey bar next to the arena. It was at this point, we both thought this could be the start of something great. What Kristi didn’t know at this time was the tickets we used to go to the game were free because they were Mark’s parents' season tickets. 😊

Hilton Head Island, SC is an iconic vacation spot on the coast. The trip was meant to be a make-up for Mark's birthday but turned into so much more. Mark had made plans for us to go check out a beach on the northern part of the island then head to a nice dinner. Kristi was being difficult on both parts of the plan. She kept asking why we needed to go across the island for a beach since our resort was on the beach and why we needed to go to a white tablecloth place for dinner. Kristi thought it was too much and just wanted to go peel and eat shrimp on a pier. He convinced her anyway to check out the “cool beach with rocks”. Kristi would commonly tease Mark about when he would propose by tapping on his pocket to see if there he was carrying anything. This time, she hit the box with the ring in it but thankfully didn’t notice! After that moment of panic, we arrived at the beach at sunset and started our walk. Partway through, Mark stopped to kiss Kristi then got down on one knee. Kristi was too excited and jumping up and down that she didn’t notice the photographer there to capture the moment. To make the moment even more special, Mark had arranged for both of our parents to be at dinner to celebrate the entire weekend with us.