Michelle and I met in Ann Arbor at church the summer of 2016 when she came to Michigan for an internship with Ford, and then again when she returned in 2017 to work full-time. However, we didn't start dating until the fall of 2018. I first thought about asking Michelle on a date when I attended a party she hosted at her apartment, when we mentioned that we could make homemade Nutella using my home chocolate-making equipment. We did that a week or two later and shortly after that I asked her on our first date. We hit it off over a mutual enthusiasm for tennis and bananagrams, which matches and games are always so close. I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to date her, but it took her a few weeks to decide she wanted to date me. We officially started dating just before she moved to Louisville for a temporary work assignment. We were able to make long distance work by taking turns travelling to see each other. Because of this, Louisville has a special place in our hearts. After four months, she moved back to Michigan, and we have been able to spend time together regularly ever since. We're looking forward to having a nice kitchen to call our own to continue our cooking and baking adventures together, another one of our mutual loves.

Our first date was at North Bay Park in Ypsilanti, MI, where we had a picnic right on the edge of Ford Lake. In May, Tyler suggested we go on a walk in North Bay so he could take pictures of wildlife with a new lens he was renting. When we got to the spot where we had our first date, there was a picnic blanket there with Tyler's picnic basket and a bouquet of flowers. After Tyler proposed (and I said yes!), I was surprised to find our friends taking pictures of the whole thing from under a nearby bridge. It was a lovely, meaningful proposal, and the bonus surprise was that Tyler made the same cheesecake that he made for our first date.