We connected on Hinge, but we could have very well been introduced by any of our many mutual friends. Our first date was on a mild October Wednesday night in 2021 at Sonny’s Tavern. Ian went in blind, knowing only that his friend Chuck knew Lyndlee’s roommates. Lyndlee, however, did her due diligence (as one does) and called upon her side of our overlapping social circles for a field report. The verdict: an outstanding “great guy!”—a report that proved 100% accurate. That night, we quickly moved past shared interests like skiing, cooking, cats, and music, and progressed to more interesting topics like personal philosophy and our mutual views on work and hate for capitalism. We got along great and shared many core values, ending the night with a plan to see Tim Theriault’s Acoustic Tuesday at Fury’s that coming week. That Tuesday, we descended into the familiar dive. Where Timmy T melted our faces and blew our minds. We discussed our first concert experiences: Ian’s was Green Day in Manchester, Lyndlee’s was jazz guitar virtuoso Pat Metheny in Concord. In a moment of kismet, Ian mentioned that he had Pat’s live album currently on his turntable at home. We exchanged a look of disbelief, and before the night was over, we were listening to it in his apartment. We’ve done a lot of spinning of records since that day! Eventually, blending vinyl collections, cat families 🐈 (Goggles, Perry, and Boo!), and Ian’s fleet of bicycles 🚲, we moved in together in a little apartment in Durham in October of 2022. The ultimate full-circle moment came on April 11, 2024. Ian proposed to Lyndlee outside of the Portsmouth Music Hall marquee, a venue we've spent countless nights at, prior to a Pat Metheny concert with her parents. In the years since, we have gone to countless concerts, hosted many a band practice, had dance parties in our kitchen, skied downhill, uphill, cross country, and crafted our own backyard ski tracks, traveled to Washington, New York, and all across New England, and most recently, bought our first home together. We are so excited to be taking this next step together in marriage and feel incredibly blessed to have found each other and to be celebrating with our community.