We met our freshman year at Purdue where we both joined the triathlon club. Dan was a runner in high school and Claire was a swimmer. We combined our efforts and helped one another with our respective sports and became friends from there! Junior year we started dating and the rest is history!

Leading up to our trip to Asheville, NC (I was told was for my birthday) I had little idea about what Dan had in store. All I knew was that we were going to Asheville, not even where we would be staying. Unfortunately, the weeks leading up to our trip Asheville underwent severe flooding that wiped out many of their hiking trails and the arts district. Dan assured me that we would still have plenty to do, so we stuck to the plan! We ended up staying at the Biltmore hotel, which was lovely! We did a wine tasting before heading to the Estate for a candlelight tour. Dan had told me we would be meeting a photographer to get some pictures with the Christmas decor at the Estate for our Christmas card (which felt believable since we had discussed scheduling Christmas card pictures already). We met our photographer, and she guided us to a secluded spot along the trail and had Dan and I turn back-to-back for a picture, then on three we turned and Dan was on one knee! Of course, I said yes and we continued on with a great engagement photo session at the Biltmore. Afterwards we had an amazing dinner back at our hotel to celebrate.