We're getting married!

Mike and his friends were hosting a watch party the night of the Ohio State v Oregon National Championship game in January 2015. Through mutual friends, Maggie was invited to his house on East 14th Avenue. Maggie remembers the first moment she saw Mike: he and his best man, Mark, came storming into the house late after their capstone professor wouldn't let them out of class early for the game. Maggie caught Mike's eye while she was sitting on his couch with her girlfriends. Mike struck up a conversation with her and the two cheered on the Buckeyes to a win together. Later that evening, Mike asked for Maggie's number. When he looked the next day and saw Maggie's last name, Mike assumed she put a fake name/number into his phone ("Chwalek"...that can't be real??). But a few days later Mike was relieved to find out it wasn't a fake name when Maggie texted him asking if she could pick up the scarf she accidentally left at his house. Over the next weeks, we would hang out every weekend and quickly started falling in love. After over seven years, we cannot wait to be married!

In February 2021, we went on a trip out west to visit Maggie's brother in Phoenix and Mike's friend who lived in Salt Lake City. In between AZ and UT, we rented a car and explored national parks. On the sixth day of the trip, we planned to hike Angels Landing at Zion National Park. This was a bucket list hike for us, but not for everyone! It's very strenuous and often ranked as one of the most dangerous hikes in the country due to the rock's narrow spine and 1,000 ft drop on either side of you. We got up before 6am to catch the sunrise as we hiked to the top. About 2 miles into the climb we stopped at a landing to catch our breath and take in the sunrise. We came across a hiker taking pictures and struck up a conversation. As we prepared to continue the hike, Mike asked the hiker if she could take a picture of us with the beautiful background. Mike handed her his phone, but instead she offered to take pictures on her professional camera. As we looked out towards the sunrise, Mike said to Maggie, "Let's soak this in. We're going to want to remember this moment." And right then, Mike turned to Maggie and proposed! Maggie of course said yes and later learned that Michelle (the hiker/photographer) was hired by Mike to capture the moment. We finished the hike to the top and found Michelle waiting for us halfway down with a bottle of champagne to celebrate. It was such an unforgettable day!