Maggie’s POV: Nate and I met while we were attending the University of Iowa. The night of August 3rd, I had gone out with my friends and he had gone out with his. However, we eventually ended up at the same bar. I don’t think we even introduced ourselves to each other, but we somehow found ourselves wandering downtown Iowa City together—and by together I mean the two of us plus Nate's older sister, Shelby. We each spoke to Shelby, but neither of us actually talked to one another. The only impression I had gotten from Nate was that he looked miserable. So I eventually made a mad dash for the bar’s back exit, hoping to put him out of his misery. Despite not having said a single word to one another, Nate had expressed his interest in me to a mutual friend. He was encouraged to add me on Snapchat—where all great love stories begin. Although he sent the friend request, I was the one who ultimately reached out to him saying, "I think our friends are trying to set us up." It took 8 hours to get a response, but eventually he responded with "I think you're right." We started talking and spent more time together over the next month or two. Towards the end of September, he had asked me to go to his cousin’s wedding with him. This would mean meeting his family and being introduced as something more serious than ‘the girl I am talking to’. Thankfully my parents and sister Abby came to visit me the night before the wedding and offered their advice. I remember talking to them about Nate, wondering if he was the guy for me. My mom asked one simple question: “Is he nice?” I replied, “Well, yeah…” She followed up with “Then that’s all you need.” Simple, yet effective. That had given me the push I needed to stop overthinking things and agree to being his plus one. In retrospect, I credit that choice to being what allowed Nate and I to get to where we are now. There’s nothing quite like meeting the family and spending a whole evening listening to people talk about love to put a girl in her feelings. Overnight, I went from questioning how I felt to totally falling for him. Nate’s POV: August of 2019, Iowa City seemed bare with the majority of U of I students residing back in their hometowns. A couple of my roommates and I decided to check out downtown Iowa City midsummer, something I hadn’t done before. As the night went on, our group merged with another friend group, and another friend group, and so on. One of the groups included my older sister, Shelby, thankfully so. At this point in the night, I was struggling to speak, keep my eyes open, or even stand, which is why I was so grateful Shelby was there to babysit me. However, out of all the noise and chaos, I noticed a pretty lady gracefully dancing her little heart out. That lady was, of course, Maggie. Not exactly sure why or how, but as Fieldhouse died down, Shelby ended up taking myself and Maggie to another bar. I didn’t say a single word to Maggie that night, I guess the 'liquid courage' thing wasn’t working. The next week or so, some mutual friends helped us out by giving our snapchats to each other. We ended up talking for a little over a week before we actually got to meet in person… consciously this time. Over the next month, I knew I found someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Early September, near Iowa City, the Bildstein family was having a wedding. Maggie and I were still talking, but we were not officially dating yet. I wanted so badly to introduce her to my parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and everyone else at the wedding, but we had a dilemma. Maggie was invited to a friend's 21st birthday party bus, but I wanted her to come to the wedding. After a couple drinks at Big Grove Brewery, my family and I convinced Maggie to come to the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and a super fun time, and I believe it was the night that Maggie officially knew she found someone she wanted to spend the rest of her life with as well.