We’re getting married!

Hey everyone! SO excited to share our big day with you. Please refer to this website for updates, announcements, and more info as we get closer to the date. Thanks! Love, Courtney and Nate

Nate and I crossed paths multiple times before finally meeting in Scranton. The first time I saw him was at a “Parents Day” meeting for my first ever study abroad program my junior year. I was headed to Uganda in about a month, and this meeting was for Q&A for the parents of the students. The professors welcomed past students who went on the trip, and Nate was included. He spoke about during his overnight in Queen Elizabeth National Park, he spotted a lion near his cabin while he was in the shower. I remember this story distinctly, and found him absolutely hilarious. When I returned from Uganda weeks later, I held the door open for him at the gym on campus. I said how I just came back from the trip and we made some small talk about it. Then we went our separate ways. Flash forward to the day before the first class of senior year, I was invited by a classmate, Juliette Porcelli (who I met through my grandparents) to hang out. She introduced me formally to Nate. We chatted about Uganda, Dancing in the Moonlight by King Harvest, and more. He asked me to get coffee that week, and we sat with our Dunkin outside the library at a picnic table. We talked for five hours straight. Those that know both of us know that we are both very very chatty, so this probably isn’t a surprise to you. We continued to spend more and more time together, going to parks and Scranton’s annual Italian festival. We both grew to care for each other more and more, and haven’t stopped finding adventures together. We thank Scranton, Uganda, and of course, Juliette for aligning the stars for us. We are so happy together and can’t wait to get married!

Nate and I had been doing long distance for over three months at the time while he was teaching in Montana. We both missed each other so much, but were making it work with lots of Skype and phone calls. Nate told me that the power would be out on Sunday, November 1 due to some maintenance at the bunkhouse where he lived, so he wouldn’t have service to talk to me. This was a pretty realistic lie, since the connection on calls were quite bad anyways. Little did I know he was actually flying home. I was planning on visiting Nate’s family with my sister, Nicole, and my best friend, Laura that day. Laura said she really wanted to go to a restaurant down there (10th Ave Burrito, if you are ever in Belmar you have to go) so we were going to make a whole day out of it. Nate’s sister, Molly, works at a nail salon down there so Laura suggested we’d also get our nails done. After the nail salon, Laura said she needed to drop something off at her cousin’s house. She ended up driving to Glimmer Glass Bridge, a place Nate and I once watched the sunset, and parked. I saw my brother, Joey, with his camera and he told me to head over to the dock. There Nate was, in the pouring rain, with flowers. I ran over to him (no clue how I didn’t slip) and he got down on one knee! It was absolutely perfect. Then we headed back to his house, and my parents were there to celebrate. What an unbelievable day.