In the fall of '08, my mom made me go to my first BBYO meeting, she pulled up to the JCC, pushed me out of the car, and the rest was history. I never realized that one night would change the rest of my life. Two years, and endless BBYO events later, I spent my summer at the summer program, Kallah '10. The first few days were rocky, and then, I met Nate Strauss. Nate was a bubbly and enthusiastic boy from Michigan, we quickly became friends. Nate and I stayed friends for many years after Kallah. BBYO programs and social media kept us connected through the rest of High School and into college. Our love of BBYO and our involvement in Hillel drew both of us to working for Hillel after college. This meant several more years of conferences where I got to see “my BBYO friend”. We got older, I was still single, and as I swiped through a dating app while at HIGA, one of our Hillel conferences, Nate popped up on my screen. That night I worked up the courage to tell Nate I had seen him on a dating app and told him I’d be interested in seeing if there was more between us than just friendship. Nate respectfully told me he was flattered, but the timing wasn’t right. We never spoke about that night between us again. Time went on, and my feelings for Nate grew every time I saw him. In the Summer of '22 we both went to Dwell, another Hillel conference. Dwell took place at a picturesque mountain resort, complete with a new wedding venue on site. My friends knew I had feelings for Nate and the joke of the week quickly turned into saying that we were all actually there for Nate and Sara’s wedding. One night, Nate and I ended up together at a picnic bench, we sat and talked for hours. I left certain that I wanted to try one more time to tell him how I felt. Little did I know, Nate left that night totally infatuated with me. We left, I kept complaining to my friends about how Nate would never like me, and months went by before that year's HIGA. I went into HIGA positive that I was going to try again to tell him how I felt. One night, Nate met me at a bar where there was a conference wide party. After hours of being there, I attempted to tell Nate how I felt. In return, he kissed me. I never quite finished that sentence. The next day, we sat down to talk about what this would mean for us. He shared that he had fallen for me over our conversation at the picnic table months earlier, and he was also coming to HIGA with the intention of telling me he had feelings for me. At that moment I told him “Yes, I want to date you. And no, I'm not moving to Michigan”. That conversation on the floor of a hotel turned into the rest of our lives. We dated long distance between DC and East Lansing, MI for a year and a half. Balancing two Hillel professional schedules, navigating some of the most challenging moments in both of our lives, overcoming my fear of flying, surviving a cruise ship COVID quarantine together, and ultimately falling more and more in love with each other. In April '24, Nate and Feeny moved to DC. The next several months taught us how important a strong foundation is. Things weren’t always easy, but we were together, and the best part of every day was coming home to my best friend. On April 25th, I went down to my car to go to work and found a note, a nod to the notes Nate and I hid in each other's luggage at the end of every visit during the time we were long distance. The note told me that today was the day, there was a change of clothes in my trunk, my family was all on their way to DC, and all I had to do was make it through a full day of work, easy right? After work, my parents were waiting for me and led me to our apartment where Nate had planned the proposal of my dreams. In the Summer of '22, on the heels of the “Nate and Sara’s wedding” joke, I sent Nate my dream engagement ring. And that night, in my favorite place on earth, standing in front of the man I had fallen for nearly fifteen years ago, Nate gave me that very same ring.

I wish I could remember the exact moment Sara and I met. It was sometime in July 2010, during BBYO’s International Kallah summer program. I didn’t know Sara Evangelista going in, but left with her as my friend (and yes, I have the Facebook pictures to prove it). We stayed in touch- posting on each other's social media, texting, and hanging out at BBYO International events. We even traveled to Poland and Israel together during our senior year. I had no idea that one of my BBYO friends would end up being the love of my life. Our story reminds me of the “invisible string” theory: the idea that two people destined to be together are constantly drawn back to each other. In college, I went to Michigan State (Go Green!), and Sara was at GW in DC. We kept in touch, met up whenever I came to DC for conferences, and picked up right where we left off every time. After college, I stayed in Michigan while Sara started grad school in NYC. That winter, I attended a work conference that Sara happened to be staffing. I remember hearing her say my name from above, looking up, and seeing her walking down a staircase toward me. It was such a surreal, movie-style moment. There were more chance reunions: BBYO IC in Denver, a Hillel conference where Sara claims I “pretended not to know her,” and matching on a Jewish dating app in 2021 (I panicked and deleted it immediately- clearly not ready to deal with those feelings). Fast forward to June 2022. At a work event in Upstate New York, we spent the week together in a close-knit group. Inside jokes formed, including one about everyone secretly being there for our wedding. One night, as the sun set, Sara and I sat at a picnic table talking for hours and I left that conversation with a giant, middle-school-style crush on my friend Sara. That fall, we stayed in touch through texts and Zoom calls. I tried to move on, but the feelings stuck. In December, we were both at a conference in Dallas. One night, met up at an event and spent the evening laughing, talking, and, just like a romcom, I kissed her in the middle of a bar. No big speech. Just a kiss. The next day, nerves and hangovers in full swing, we sat on a hotel floor and talked about what came next. Long distance. Real feelings. A relationship. And we walked away officially dating. Back home, we told our families. My mom shouted, “I LOVE HER!” when I told her, and that’s when I realized I did, too. Two weeks later, I visited Sara for New Year’s in DC. As I stepped out of her car, I knew I’d marry her someday. Over the next 18 months, we built a life between Michigan and DC. I moved to DC in summer 2024. We learned to live together, share a home, and blended our families - Feeny and Orli included. In January 2025, I started designing Sara’s engagement ring (yes, based on the notes she gave me). I picked it up on March 27 and planned my proposal for a month later. Sara always said her dream proposal was like Monica and Chandler’s in Friends- candles everywhere, right in their apartment. So I made it happen. Our families came to DC. The dogs wore “My Paw-rents Are Getting Married” bandanas. I wrote 150 greeting cards* asking her to marry me. *We used to hide greeting cards in each other’s luggage while long-distance. We’ve saved them all, so incorporating that idea felt perfect.* The day of, I left a card in Sara’s car revealing that “today” was the day. Her instructions? Go to work and wait for a text. While she was gone, our families and I transformed our apartment with candles, flowers, and cards. When Sara got home, she went on a mini scavenger hunt, found her parents, and walked into our home full of love. She said yes as we both shed such happy tears. And that brings us here. Poke around, check out the gallery, and get ready to party on 11.14.26! Here’s to that invisible string that finally brought us to this moment. *This story was originally 4 pages long. Want to read it? Go to: bit.ly/natesversion