The place was Moose Country. The day was a Saturday or Tuesday. The Gimp (Kris) and Kelly were in full effect that evening. The Red Bull vodkas were messing with my short-term memory as I could not remember Marietta’s name even though I was told by Kelly multiple times that evening. Skip a few years and we ran into each other at a New Year's Eve party hosted by Kelly and Kris. We hung out for a little bit but nothing evolved as Marietta was traveling the world making it a better place. Skip one divorce later and we connected a few years ago to play some cribbage and have not been separated since. We welcomed our beautiful daughter to this world on June 20th one day before big brother’s 10th birthday. We invite you to our celebration of love.

I’ve known who Mike was since I was in high school (Mike’s 4 years older than me, Kelly’s age). He worked at the local deli/cafe and was friends with Kelly and Kris. It wasn’t until 2008 that I ran into him a couple times...the night before Thanksgiving and again at a New Year's Eve party, that I developed a crush on him and we casually dated for about a year, as I was traveling full time. That eventually fizzled and we both went on to date other people. Fast forward to Summer 2021, I was at a happy hour at Tappers, the local bar I frequented, with about 20 people from work. Mike came in to “order a pizza” and we sat and talked for a while. A few weeks later, Mike happened to stop into Tappers again, this time when I was there with Lindsay, my bridesmaid, my parents, and Kelly and Kris. We all hung out and chatted with Steve, the owner of Tapper’s and Kris and Mike’s childhood friend and groomsman. After this, I figured out that Mike showing up to Tappers when I was there wasn’t an accident, he knew I hung out there and went there hoping I'd be there. In September, Mike asked me to hang out and play cribbage (our "first date") and made it official in early 2022. I had a trip planned to Italy for my 40th birthday and Mike decided he had to join me and my parents, so we traveled together in April 2022 and it was in Italy that we both admitted to each other that we were in love and knew we’d get married. Mike proposed on August 8, 2022 and we found out we were pregnant on November 3. We had often discussed having a baby and neither one of us were getting any younger so we decided to focus on our journey as parents together before planning our wedding. Emilia joined our family on June 20, 2023 and we have been enjoying every minute since then. I’ve always thought that everything will happen when it’s supposed to, and I was right about this one.