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February 11, 2023
Des Moines, IA

Mia & Philip

    Our Story
    Itinerary

Philip

Storto

and

Mia

Spitzer

February 11, 2023

Des Moines, IA

How we met..

Made it out of the friend-zone

We met freshman year at the University of Iowa through mutual friends in Rienow Hall. Phil, the analytical engineer, spent his spare time being Mr. Fun-Guy. Mia, the creative dancer, spent her ounce of spare time studying. Yet, we occasionally found time to hang out in large groups and Phil's notorious fraternity parties. Right before the COVID-19 pandemic, we were both downtown on a Saturday night and reconnected. Mia asked Phil out to brunch to catch up that next week on February 10th, 2020 and the rest was history! Due to us being a covid couple, it took us some time before the next date could actually occur.

Our first date...

Hopeless Romantics

We had our first date a few months after the original "friend-zone brunch date", Phil asked Mia to a surprise date on one of the hottest days of the year. The day came about and Phil's air conditioning broke in his apartment so he arrived early to Mia's apartment and blasted the air to get rid of the sweat stains already in his shirt. Meanwhile, Mia was freaking out in her apartment about what to wear and how to do her hair... even though this dream guy has already been her friend for four years. Phil walks up to the apartment with a beautiful bouquet of Hy-Vee flowers and a nervous smile. We went to Blackstone Bar and Grill in Iowa City during happy hour so we picked out martinis that we thought the other would like. Before dinner was over, Phil had a little surprise up his sleeve and took Mia behind the Iowa Memorial Union to watch the sunset while drinking wine. We ended our night slow dancing and talking for hours! Couldn't have been more romantic!

Our Engagement

Long Distance Love

After starting her immersive rotation at The University of Minnesota Duluth, Mia was busy nearly every weekend with soccer game coverage. Phil, knowing that it wasn't going to be easy to get her away from her work, had connected with her preceptor to make sure she was told to not attend the season opening scrimmage. Mia, heartbrokenly tells Phil that she isn't able to attend the scrimmage because she's convinced her preceptor doesn't want her there and he responds with "Why don't you just come to Eau Claire this weekend then?". Sneaky sneaky. On Saturday, August 28th, 2021 Mia spent the morning doing homework and Phil was acting a little antisocial/anxious. We had secret date plans at 4pm, which wasn't completely out of the norm because we are both the romantic type and do this regularly. Mia, the caffeine addict, insisted on getting Starbucks before the date... not realizing she was stressing Phil out and almost making us late to the secret date. We arrived at the sunflower field, one of Mia's favorite flowers and places to be. Walking around the fields, Mia pointed out this cute couple that was taking photos of each other but didn't think anything of it. Next thing she knew, the man of her dreams was on one knee promising to love her for the rest of their lives. She said, "Me?! Really?! YES!!" After the most perfect moment, Phil surprised her with a small family gathering back at his apartment. Future Mrs.Storto banner was hung and all of our favorite foods were served. We watched a video of a few of our close friends and family wishing us the best/congrats on our engagement, after John Storto made the entire crowd bawl during his speech. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!

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For all the days along the way
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