Elana and Mitch first met at Chatham University during P.A. school. Coincidentally (but not surprisingly) both their first memories of each other involve Penn State clothing. E: I was wearing my roommate's Penn State sweatshirt in class, and Mitch came up to me and said "Hey - I like your sweatshirt!". Smoothly, I replied "thanks, it's my roommate's." M: I remember meeting Elana the very first day of school in our very first lab when we all were trying out our stethoscopes on each other for the first time. She had dark hair, a pretty smile, and a PSU shirt which made it pretty easy to fall for her. Elana and Mitch started studying together with some of their other friends from school, but over time it ended up just being the two of them studying together. E: I started to have a crush on Mitch and liked studying with him at school BUT I was too much of a nerd to agree to study at his house. M: I would tell one of my roommates how I had a major crush on Elana all the time. I finally gained the courage to ask her to "hang out" and her response was "after our next rounds of exams" which I naturally interpreted as "I'm not interested in you, bro." Finally their unit four round of exams ended, and Mitch invited Elana over to work on their end of unit papers. E: We had a great time just chit-chatting, drinking wine and watching house. M: Turns out she was interested - and she was just a nerd (phew!). Then Mitch asked Elana to go to breakfast, which turned out to be Valentines Day E: Mitch slyly asked me to go to breakfast. He ended up being my first Valentines date ever :) M: My second grade teacher told me Valentine's Day was when you ask a girl out on a date, so I pretty much just stuck with that game plan. I guess Cupid's arrow was working that morning because Elana and Mitch soon became the perfect match :)

After crushing a 2+ years long distance relationship, we got engaged at East River State Park in Brooklyn, NY on 12/14/19. We had been to the park before, and we loved the view of the city from the park. M: It was the perfect weekend to pop the question as Elana’s family was going to be visiting her in NYC. I purchased flowers for dinner just prior to leaving Pittsburgh. I lose everything, so I checked my pocket for the ring every 30 minutes to make sure I hadn't lost it. The (typical) 6-hour drive took even longer than usual as I was driving in a severe rainstorm (while ironically watching the flowers I purchased for dinner slowly wilt away). But nothing could stop me now. E: I had no idea Mitch was planning on proposing that weekend especially since I was a part of the planning. I made reservations at a cool rooftop bar for pre-dinner cocktails. Looking back I should have known Mitch was up to something since he nervously messed up his signature on the bill. I then suggested we walk to dinner, which (luckily for Mitch) took us right by the river where he wanted to propose. Neither of us knew what Mitch said when he got down on one knee. M: After fumbling in my pocket for too long and mistakenly pulling out a washer, I pulled out the ring and got down on one knee. I think I was just mumbling words all the while Elana was yelling "HOLY S--T!" Luckily she took a quick break from the profanity to answer "yes." E: Let me just reiterate that I was clearly taken by surprise, but I love surprises and this was the best surprise ever. We then went to a romantic candle-lit dinner where we sat at a corner table with the flowers Mitch dropped off, and a bottle of champagne waiting for us. We were officially engaged! M: The flowers were on their last leg. E: The flowers were so pretty! The next day we celebrated with Elana’s family who met us for lunch and a Broadway show. We couldn’t have dreamed of a better weekend :)

WHEN: 6/11/2022 WHERE: Candlewood Inn - Brookfield, CT