Mark and Alissa met on Match.com when Alissa marked "interested" on his profile and Mark began a conversation. Through their many conversations, they learned that Mark graduated from West Chester University the year before Alissa's friend, Kelli, and there was a good chance they had met in college! Kelli and Mark had mutual friends at WCU, Alissa and Kelli had been to parties at Mark's fraternity, and Mark and Kelli even lived next door to each other for a year! After about a month of getting to know each other, the two decided to meet for their first date at Side Bar Restaurant in West Chester. Alissa remembers going to Kelli's house before the date and receiving a text from Mark that he would meet her outside of the restaurant with an umbrella since it was raining. Upon hearing this, Kelli's husband, Ian, declared "He's a keeper!" When Alissa got to the restaurant, Mark was not outside with the umbrella. Maybe he forgot? :) Mark and Alissa had a great first date chatting and getting to know each other more. At the end of the date, Alissa offered to drive Mark home since he had planned to walk, but it was raining, and he forgot that umbrella, remember? Upon dropping him off, Mark asked Alissa if she would go on a second date with him. The next couple of weeks were filled with trips to Johnson's farm, NYC, and Mark meeting Alissa's friends at two different Halloween parties. Before one of the parties, Mark's car broke down so he paid an $80 uber to get to still be the Squints to Alissa's Wendy. On November 4, Alissa went to dinner at her grandparents house and told them she had planned to talk to Mark that evening about deleting their Match.com apps and dating exclusively. Alissa's grandfather declared "You better not do that, that's his job!". She did it anyway.

The day started early. Mark and Alissa had planned to go into the city to "celebrate his mom's birthday". They drove to Mark's sister, Alex's house to pick her up (and the ring) and took the bus into the city. The bus that took 5 extra turns and stops and took over an hour to arrive at Port Authority. Once they arrived, Alex declared she wanted to take a walk in Central Park before brunch and once there, stated she wanted to walk down to the water to see the ducks. Standing at the water side, Mark turned to Alissa, grabbed her hands, and said what I'm sure were some very nice things that both Alissa and Mark do not remember. Once Alissa caught on that he was proposing she kept saying things in disbelief like "you're not doing this right now" and "this isn't happening". I mean, she waited four years and couldn't believe the moment had finally arrived. Mark rushed through his speech in annoyance and eventually got down on one knee. Lots of tears, hugging, and kissing later, they decided to take a walk through the park so Alex could take more pictures. After leaving the city for the day, Mark stated he had made a lunch reservation at one of their favorite spots, The Cranford Hotel. Little did Alissa know, Mark had set up a surprise lunch with family. They arrived at the restaurant and went to the basement bar area and they were bombarded with family yelling "surprise!" To celebrate with them were Marks parents and sister, grandfather, aunt, uncle, and cousin. Alissa's parents were there, her grandmother, an aunt and uncle, and even her sister from Florida. It was a very special day and they were so excited to spend it with some of their favorite people.