Megan and I met in college at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. The first time we really talked was on a junior year trip to Chicago through the accounting fraternity, but I had known of her since freshman year as the ‘cute girl from my dorm’. I don’t think she knew who I was, so my goal was to change that by the end of the trip. After that, I started attending more accounting events hoping to run into her. One day I asked her about the group comedy club event, and we each agreed to go if the other one was going too. We ‘randomly’ ended up sitting next to each other at the event, and we hit it off. The next semester we studied abroad together in London and officially started dating on March 7th, 2012. It was pretty easy to fall for each other when our first trips together were places like Paris, Barcelona, and Prague. Then we got back and both had summer internships in Minneapolis, spent another semester of school in Madison, and then a spring internship at the same company in Chicago. We were in the same four cities in four quarters by complete coincidence; all of this was laid out before we started dating. Now we live and work in Chicago and can’t wait for our wedding this Fall.

There is one word to describe the proposal: hectic. My plan was to take Megan to three spots around Chicago and give her a handwritten card at each. The locations were supposed to represent the three cities that meant the most to our relationship: London, Madison, and Chicago. I ordered the cards weeks in advance of the proposal. However, the final card didn’t arrive until the Friday night before the Saturday proposal. It was an omen for the next morning. The first location was supposed to represent London. I planned to take Megan out for high tea at a popular café in Chicago around noon. However, that morning the weather changed and a storm was set to hit by noon. The next two stops were outside so I had to start scrambling. The café opened at 10 am and didn’t take reservations, so I called them while Megan was out getting her nails done in the morning (almost like she suspected something…) They answered at 10:01 and told me there was a line around the corner, already an hour and a half wait. So I ran to the grocery store, and we ended up having a quick English breakfast at home. The second stop was at the building where we both lived during our first internships in Chicago, and this represented Madison. We got into an uber to take us there and right away the driver started talking about how the weather was about to turn, sending me into an internal panic. Then he told us a story about how earlier that morning he was driving a group of guys who were also worried about the weather. Turns out one of them was a groom on the way to his outdoor wedding. “I wouldn’t have brought it up if I knew it was going to freak him out!” the uber driver told us. Then he said, “Honestly though, I don’t really get the whole marriage thing. I wouldn’t recommend it.” This was 30 minutes before I proposed. He got a 1 star review.

After stopping by our old building and giving Megan the second card, we started walking towards the final location. I wanted to propose by the Adler planetarium with the entire Chicago skyline in the background; it’s our favorite view of the city. So I told Megan we were rushing to make the 11:30 showing of a movie they were playing. The day before, I had scouted out the area and agreed to set her up at the ninth flagpole leading to the planetarium where my coworker would be hiding out for a picture. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the planetarium my mind was mush. I was 30 seconds away from proposing and I couldn’t count to nine anymore, so we walked right past my coworker. After I awkwardly killed time, he was able to maneuver past us and get into position for the pictures. I gave her the final card and proposed. Neither of us remember exactly what we said, but I’m lucky that somewhere between the tears, there was a ‘yes’.