Karen and Phillip met at the end of their sophomore year at St. Olaf College despite growing up 42 minutes apart in the towns of St. Charles and Woodstock, IL. There were 7 instrumental music education majors in their class, but they both thought there were only 6. It wasn't until their degree program entrance recital in March 2013 when they saw each others' names and hometowns in the program. “Who is this violinist girl from IL?” thought Phillip. “Why have I not been carpooling with this trombonist boy for breaks??” asked Karen. When they returned for junior year, they had 5 classes together and became great friends, particularly when Karen started asking Phillip for rides home (Karen’s dad paid him gas money to spend time with his daughter - sweet deal!). Something deeper was clearly developing...though not clearly enough. Phillip had strong feelings for Karen but wasn't convinced that she reciprocated them. Karen loved that Phil would sit by her in class and analyzed all of his gentlemanly gestures. She was confused, however, as to why they hadn't met up outside of class and figured his evenings and weekends belonged to others (little did she know he was actually just a nerd doing homework). Karen prayed that things would be clear by the end of the year. Sure enough, on the last possible day of school, Phillip, with pink eye in both eyes and an Applebee's gift card from his Aunt Judy, finally asked her to dinner. She responded with an enthusiastic "I'd love to!", and they enjoyed a fun evening together (with ice cream of course). Karen even invited him back the next morning to help debunk her bed...talk about a first date gone well! That August of 2014, Karen invited Phillip to go violin shopping with her in Chicago. They stopped back at her parents’ house, and when she took him to the backyard to show him the bunny hutch and her three very old bunnies, he professed his feelings for her. A week later, they decided to officially start dating.

After graduating from St. Olaf, living in Minnesota, moving to Colorado, and returning to Illinois, nearly 5 years (and hundreds of ice cream scoops) had passed since Karen and Phillip began dating. Through lots of prayer, Phillip knew the time was right to propose in early March. Within the span of a week, he requested to talk with Karen's parents, her dad scheduled a meeting in a private study room at Elgin Community College (whoa, official), he received her grandma's engagement ring from them, and he had it refurbished overnight. Phillip attended Mass with Karen and her parents at St. Pat’s on Sunday, March 3rd. Afterward, Karen's parents told her they were going to check on her uncle's house and that she and Phillip should go back to their house and start on breakfast. As they pulled into the driveway, Phillip said, "Hey, while we've got our shoes and coats on, let's go feed your bunny, Ginger!"* "No," Karen replied. Phillip had not expected that. "I'm cold, I'm hungry, he doesn't get fed at this time, why do you care so much?..." Despite her resistance, Karen went out to the bunny hutch, where she demanded exasperatedly, "Alright, we're here! What is it?!" Phillip took a deep breath, began to speak, and got down on one knee. Karen was completely taken by surprise and had not expected a proposal at all. She gave Phillip a confident, tear-filled "Yes," and he sprang up to hug her, removed her St. Olaf mitten, and placed the ring on her finger. They met Karen's parents for breakfast in Geneva and enjoyed a glorious day celebrating with family and friends and eating year-old ice cream (ask for story later). We are so blessed and cannot wait for you to join us in celebrating on February 29!! *Remember those three very old bunnies from 5 years ago? Two have since died, and Ginger is a 12+ year old bunny (potential world record?). Phillip knew he wanted to propose by the hutch and was just begging Ginger to stick around :-)