Despite growing up a few miles from each other, Eric and Mackenzie didn’t find each other until they were both living in Minneapolis in 2022. One of Mackenzie‘s best friends, Alex, came to visit in September just a few months after Eric had moved to Minnesota. Fortunately, Alex had great instincts and planned to introduce her former childhood neighbor, Eric, to Mackenzie. The three of them spent most of the weekend hanging out together, filled with concerts, dinners, and days on the lake. The connection between Eric and Mackenzie was instant and they had their first date about a week later, where they went to Rosalia’s for pizza and walked along Lake Harriet with ice cream from Sebastian Joes, finishing the night by watching one of Eric’s all-time favorite movies, Paddington 2. After two years of adventure, companionship and endless laughter, they flew to London, England before a European cruise vacation and Eric proposed at the most beautiful spot in the River Thames across from Big Ben.

On September 20th, 2024 Eric and Mackenzie flew to London to begin a European vacation. Their first day in London, with him dressed in a new blue suit and her in an ethereal gown, they left for their dinner reservation at Michelin starred Galvin le Chapelle. They left the house early to make a quick stop at Big Ben to get photos before dinner under the ruse of never taking a picture there, despite Eric studying a semester in London. Mackenzie did her best not to notice the conspicuous tote bag Eric left the house with because the Dr Who Tardis notebook with his speech and the Tardis ring box (note the theme) would not fit in his pockets. Eric led Mackenzie to the banks of the River Thames, cueing the violinist that he had hired to begin playing an arrangement of one of their favorite songs, “Red Wine Supernova” by Chappell Roan. They walked past the line of tourists waiting to capture a idilic memory then Eric got down on a knee and, through tears and serenaded by strings, professed his love in a (slightly long) speech that he had written in his notebook. In the shadow of the Westminster bridge with the autumn dusk sun behind them, Eric opened up a custom Tardis ring box and with the vintage 1920s engagement ring they had picked out together months before, he asked Mackenzie to be his companion for all of space and time.