Nick had a crush on Maria in high school. Maria didn’t know who Nick was. While working together as camp counselors in 2012, they decided they liked each other quite a lot, and quickly became best friends. At the time, Nick's preferred cuisine was "regular food" (think sandwiches, chips, potatoes) and Maria was supposedly allergic to cats. In 2020, we moved to Vermont together where Nick pursued organic farming, after deciding somewhere along the way that he liked vegetables. This is probably because Maria made him try a lot of new foods - and now he's a pretty amazing vegan home chef. Nick's cat Theodore came with us and successfully converted Maria to a full-on cat lover (we're not sure what happened to the allergies). Even though we lived in a studio apartment and didn't go out much except for long walks because of the pandemic, it was a pretty great time overall because we really enjoy spending time together. Another highlight of Vermont was bringing home a delightful kitten from a local shelter. After moving back to western Massachusetts and adopting cat #3, we bought a house in Holyoke, MA in the fall of 2024 and are having a lot of fun dreaming about projects and making it our own. Nick has already planted a ton of plants in the garden (mostly fruits that he will eat, of course) and Maria gets to use all the bold paint colors and wallpapers without worrying about security deposits. We look forward to continuing to grow, explore, cook, and enjoy cat snuggles together - and we are so excited to celebrate our wedding with the people we love!