Luke and Aleksandra met in January 2017 during the first day of spring semester classes at UMD. Luke walked into Vicky Lehman's Digital Tech class and thought to himself, "That's a pretty cute girl." Later that day, Aleksandra went home and mentioned to her roommate, "A pretty cute guy sat next to me in class today."

It was nearing the end of the spring semester and Luke was just a couple months away from graduation. They had been talking in class, mostly about class projects and idle small talk. Luke had taken to accompanying Aleksandra to the coffee shop down the hall where she would grab lunch after class. One day Luke finished his daily project about 45 minutes early and rather than pack up his bag and head out, he sat at the table for the rest of class refreshing his email. When class ended Aleksandra and Luke began packing their bags to leave. Aleksandra, up until this point, was oblivious to Luke's interest, until Professor Vicky Lehman caught her eye and gave her a knowing nod. On that walk to the coffee shop, Luke asked Aleksandra if she wanted to join his volleyball league. Knowing full well she was horrible at volleyball she said yes.

A couple weeks after Luke asked Aleksandra to join his volleyball league, he invited her to a Sheezer concert with him and his best friend Mo. Sheezer was participating in a week long festival, known as The Ides of March, where local Duluth bands pull names of famous bands out of a hat and cover those songs for a week. Being a fan of Weezer, Aleksandra was bummed when she had a project for design class due the next day and had to turn down Luke’s offer. Later that week Luke heard Sheezer would be playing again and invited Aleksandra to see them. They met at the Red Herring and experienced a heavy-metal screamo concert whose lead singer looked mysteriously like a young Tommy Chong. Needless to say, a far cry from the “Island In The Sun” vibes they were anticipating. Even though neither enjoyed the concert, they both enjoyed the date and laughed about the mix up all the way back to campus.

Six years after their first date Luke took Aleksandra on a surprise birthday trip to Devils Lake, WI. He rented a groovy Airbnb straight out of the 70’s, with sweeping views of Lake Wisconsin and the surrounding valley. On the way they stopped for Old Fashions, the kind that you can only get in Wisconsin, at a bar across the lake from the Airbnb. It was late by the time they got to their Airbnb and they realized their host had given them the wrong code. Aleksandra quickly found an unlocked window that Luke proceeded to fall through and open the door from the inside. The next day they went to Devils Lake to see the famous rock formations of Balancing Rock and Devil’s Doorway. Unbeknownst to Aleksandra, Luke had the ring in his pocket the whole time, but never found the perfect moment as the trails were too busy. That evening Luke and Aleksandra returned to the bar on Wisconsin Lake, because when you find a bartender who asks if you want your Old Fashions sweet or sour, you give them your business. They moseyed out onto the pier to watch the sunset. By this point Aleksandra had a hunch as to what was going down. But right as Luke got up the nerve to ask, two drunk fishermen tromped out of the bar, onto the pier and into their boat to head home. The next morning Luke got up early to make breakfast. They were sharing breakfast in front of the windows admiring the panoramic view of the valley when Luke, without any interruptions from rowdy hikers or drunk fishermen, asked Aleksandra to marry him.