Samantha was born and raised in Natick, MA where she lived with her parents and older sister. When it was time to go off to college, Samantha decided to stay close to home for school and enrolled at the illustrious Bryant University. Paul was born and raised in Baltimore, MD where he lived with his parents and younger sister. Paul was a star football player in high school and chose to attend Bryant after being offered a football scholarship to the school. Samantha was on the cheer team as a freshman and dance team throughout her time at school and Paul spent most of his time out on the football field. The lovely couple had met several times in passing but didn’t start to grow their friendship until they took a fateful senior Business 400 class together their senior year. Almost every class at Bryant requires their students to complete a group project together and Business 400 was no exception. Paul and Samantha of course sought each other out as group members along with other friends in the class. After spending a few months sharing drinks at the legendary Bryant townhouses, Paul finally worked up the courage to ask Samantha out on a date to a local sushi restaurant (Samantha’s favorite food of course). The two naturally hit it off but unfortunately time was running out before their final semester as undergrads came to an end. Paul had plans to return to campus in the fall for grad school and football while Samantha would start her career at Whitehead Institute at MIT. Thankfully the couple was able to stay in contact throughout the summer after graduation and Paul was even able to drive up to Natick to surprise Samantha (his first of many surprises). The short “long-distance” relationship the two shared (Natick, MA to Smithfield, RI) would ultimately be the training wheels for the years to come. Paul completed his graduate degree in May 2016 and moved back home to start his career at PwC’s Baltimore Office. Samantha and Paul would continue their long-distance relationship for the next year and a half between Baltimore and Natick. The couple would do everything they could to make the relationship work including Paul flying up to Mass, Samantha flying to Baltimore, meeting in another city for vacation, etc. Samantha and Paul love to travel so each visit was it's own adventure and they couldn’t wait to plan for the next time they would see each other. Paul eventually found an apartment in downtown Baltimore and Samantha was looking to change jobs so the timing was perfect. Samantha was able to find an opportunity down in Baltimore 2017. They experience so many firsts after moving in together - getting a Christmas tree, furniture shopping, and sharing finances. In October 2020 with the help of the best real estate agent in the game (Paul's mom), they bought a house together. Samantha didn’t know it at the time, but Paul started saving for an engagement ring days after she had moved in. After putting money to the side slowly over time, Paul had saved up enough to buy Samantha a ring he thought she would love. Samantha notoriously provided no guidance as to what type of ring she would like and so Paul enlisted the help of Samantha’s best friend to help pick out a ring. With the ring purchased, the next step was to set the stage for a proposal. The couple travelled down to an all-inclusive resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for what Samantha thought was a special birthday celebration. After spending days snorkeling and relaxing in the sun, Paul set up a private sunset dinner on the beach for the couple. As mentioned before, Samantha and Paul loved to travel and had been to several tropical vacation spots in the past. Samantha therefore never expected Paul to pop the question and was in complete shock after seeing her ring. When she finally processed what happened she said “YES!” and the rest is history!