We're getting married!

Chris and Nicole's story began back in 2000, when Chris moved to Emerson and landed in Nicole’s first-grade class. Over the years, they shared other homerooms together and even performed a choreographed dance in second grade—something they’re still hoping to find footage of (so if anyone from Ms. Lutz’s class has a recording, please share!). However, it wasn’t until later that they became main characters in each other’s lives. During their freshman year of high school, fate brought Nicole and Chris together again when they ended up sharing every single class. This sparked a fast friendship that carried them through high school, eventually leading them to attend prom together. As luck would have it, they both chose the same college, although Nicole spent her freshman year abroad at Marist’s campus in Florence, Italy. Even though they were just friends at the time, the distance made them realize they couldn’t go long without being in constant communication. Letters were sent across the ocean, CDs were burned, many of the songs featured Jason Mraz like "Lucky" and "I’m Yours" (which were much less cringey back in 2012!). After Nicole returned from Italy and reunited with Chris on campus, it didn’t take long for them to realize their feelings had deepened beyond friendship. On October 22, 2013, Nicole and Chris officially started dating. Since then, they’ve traveled together, moved in together, and adopted their dog, Maggie, who is the light of their lives. Just a few weeks before Chris proposed, Nicole declared to her best friend that they’d probably get engaged in two to three years. Little did she know, Chris had already planned to propose during their upcoming trip to Vancouver on October 8, 2023—nearly 10 years after they first started dating. It was an easy "yes" for Nicole, even if she didn’t see it coming (okay, maybe she had a hunch). It didn’t matter when they’d get engaged, they always knew they would be each others forever.