We're so excited to celebrate with you!

Well, where to start? As I sit here typing in mid-June, 2021, (in the beautiful residence of the wonderful Stearns family in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin), I'm reminded of how much life has changed for both myself and Mal over the past 16 months. If you could rewind the clock back to February 11th, 2020 at Donato's Pizza in Nashville, you'd find an empty pizza joint with not much going in and out of the kitchen and a grand total of 0 people in the dining area -- that is aside from 2 young people quietly talking in the corner. It was their first date and neither of them really knew that their world and the rest of the world as a whole was about to change forever. Everybody knows what happens next -- global shutdown, mask mandates, etc etc etc -- but what everyone may not know is that those 2 people from in the empty Donato's Pizza joint quickly and amazingly, fell for each other. Countless dinner dates, a 6-week long-distance relationship stint due to the shutdown, a few trips up to Mal's hometown in WI, a couple of moving trips, a few great traveling adventures, long and laughter-filled phone calls before finally saying goodnight, countless "I love you's," and a whole lot of learning to communicate and here we are: engaged and beyond words excited to start a life together -- our life together. The road to this point hasn't always been easy and the road ahead of us we know won't be, but we're both deeply thankful to have found each other and to be able to God willing, one day soon call each other husband and wife. N & M