WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!

Dan and Marissa met by necessity in the high school parking lot when Marissa accidentally ripped her pants. She needed a ride home to avoid humiliation of cosmic proportions, and mutual friend John Millin informed her that Dan lived nearby and was leaving for the day. Assuming Dan would give a stranger a ride home, John told her to find Dan's car in the parking. In a flurry of commotion, she tracked down Dan among the rush of cars lined up to leave Palatine High School. With a quick explanation of the pants mishap she invited herself into his passenger seat. Little did they know they would one day agree to riding shot gun in each other's lives forever.

In September of 2020, Dan & Marissa were spending much of our time at home and Marissa had gotten very into riding her stationary bike. On the day of Marissa's 100th Peloton ride, Dan wanted to celebrate her achievement by taking her out to dinner. Dan suggested they take a stroll through Lincoln Park on their way to dinner, where a picnic was waiting with champagne and photo album of memories. Dan got down on one knee and the entire park cheered. They immediately called friends and family to share the good news. After a dinner, they came home to a group of their closest friends waiting to celebrate the engagement. Thank you to our friends who helped pull of the surprise and made it such a great night!

Despite growing up less than a mile away from each other, Dan & Marissa had never met before that funny run-in in the high school parking lot. Even as classmates and friends in high school, it wasn't until college that their relationship began. Marissa was attending Harper at home in Palatine and Dan was off at the University of Illinois in Champaign. In the summer of 2013, they spent almost every night staying up late, laughing, talking, watching The Office and their lives would be forever changed. The rest of college was spent trading visits between Chicago and Champaign until they graduated in 2016 . After 6 years together, they moved into their first apartment on Armitage Avenue and the rest is history. We're excited to finally make this thing official after almost a decade together!