Welcome to our beginning.

Devon and Tricia met in a history class at Winona State University. Tricia sat behind Devon, and they regularly partnered up during group work in class. When the semester came to a close, their platonic history class partner relationship ended, and they parted ways.

About a year and three months after losing touch, Tricia was swiping away on Tinder (a dating app), and saw a familiar face, her history class partner. She debated with herself for a few seconds, but then decided to swipe right, and much to her delight, they matched. After spending a few hours messaging back and forth reconnecting, Devon asked Tricia on a date that consisted of going to a friend's party, walking around downtown Winona talking, and getting a late night bite to eat at Erbert and Gerbert's.

While the pair was watching a movie, the following conversation ensued: Devon: So, if you were to be asked out, would you want it done in a special way, or could a guy just ask? Tricia: He could just ask, I'd be fine with that. Devon: Cool. *thirty minutes later* Devon: If you couldn't tell by my first question, I want you to be my girlfriend. Does that sound good with you? Tricia: Sure, that works with me. Devon: Cool. And the rest was history.

After our first date, I went home and told my roommates that I was pretty sure I just had a date with the guy I was going to marry.

The first time we ever cuddled while we were watching a movie. It was the same day I asked Tricia out. She was sitting with her hands covering her face because she is a huge baby when it comes to scary movies. I pulled her over to me, and as soon as she laid her head on my chest I thought, “I could marry her”. It felt right.

Devon brought Tricia’s parents, Jeff and Joan Anderson, out to dinner to ask for Tricia’s hand in marriage. After an easy “yes of course” from them, Devon decided to consult a friend of Tricia’s for proposal ideas. He was told to do it at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre, which is the place Tricia had been saying since she was sixteen-years-old that she wanted to be proposed to at. When Devon told Tricia he had gotten them tickets to see Newsies at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre and she needed to take off of work, she knew that a proposal was on the way. When the night came, Devon was incredibly nervous and by his own words, almost chickened out. After dinner and ten minutes before the show, Devon brought Tricia out into the lobby, got down on one knee and asked her to be his wife. After ecstatic "yes" from Tricia, Devon quickly got up and said, "oh thank God I finally did it".

We are both so excited to start our life together and have you there to celebrate with us! For all of those who are unfamiliar with the significance of our wedding day, June 12th is “Loving Day” named after Richard and Mildred Loving, the anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia which struck down all anti-miscegenation laws remaining in sixteen U.S. states, making interracial marriage legal in all of the United States.