Max and Kayla’s love story began in the fall of 2019 at the University of New Hampshire. Kayla, having made the trek from South Windsor, Connecticut as a Division I Swimmer (very impressive), and Max, who braved the five-minute walk from his family home in Durham to the campus dormitories as a mechanical engineer hopeful (not as impressive, but still cool). The two first met at a UNH hockey game that same fall, and joined the University’s designated student fan organization known as the Cat Pack Captains (CPC). As they made their way through freshman year on friendly terms, their college experiences were rudely interrupted by the Covid-19 Pandemic. However, the pandemic allowed Max and Kayla to grow closer together. As it happened, the Covid-riddled fall semester of 2020 at UNH was quite an important one for our happy couple. It was then that they decided to go from friendship to relationship. Despite their notion that they had kept this development secret from their friends, everyone could tell what was going on between the two, as Max and Kayla made their relationship official in November of 2020. After their sophomore years concluded, Max and Kayla decided to move into an apartment together (with myself and two others) and this would be their home for the next two years of school. Moving in together was the perfect level up for Max and Kayla and it would be the first place they would share together as a couple. They thrived in such an environment and made the move look free and easy as they navigated the latter part of their college careers. In fact, the couple decided to adopt a dog together in April of 2023. Rocky, who was almost a year old when Max and Kayla adopted him, became the newest addition to their relationship and was effectively their firstborn child despite being a dog. Quickly following Rocky’s adoption, Max and Kayla both graduated from the University of New Hampshire in the spring of 2023 as part of that year’s graduating class. Max, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and Kayla, with a degree in Human Development and Family Studies. Max followed graduation by accepting a position as an estimator/engineer at a private sector company located in Barrington, New Hampshire while Kayla continued her studies on a full academic scholarship for graduate school in Elementary Education. The pair also made their second move together as they settled into a small apartment located on the Carpenter family property. As Max familiarized himself with his new job, Kayla began her graduate year, and Rocky warmed up to domestic life, the writing was on the wall for what was to come next. On September 29th, 2023, Max proposed to Kayla at Pepperell Cove on the coast of Maine, after tireless efforts and reconnaissance trips to make sure everything was perfectly in order. To which it assuredly was. I hope I’m not telling any spoilers by telling you she said yes, I trust you all can figure that one out. Even so, after nearly three years, two of which they had lived together, braving a global pandemic, graduating college, and adopting their own dog, the outcome that always seemed to be in the cards from the very start, came to pass. To tell you the truth, I think in my own mind they have already been married for a while now, and I mean that in every good way possible. These two knew incredibly early on what their intentions were, how big their love for one another was, and what it was going to take to make it work. They have had difficulties along the way, just like the rest of us. The biggest difference for them is that even with those, they have still made this look incredibly easy. That is how you knew these two were supposed to end up together. A classic, if there ever was one, Max and Kayla’s love story is one to be greatly celebrated. So, for their sake, not only do I hope you all love celebrating as much as I do, I know you all love them as much as I do. Cheers, let’s have one. ~Wyatt Carlson (Best Man)