Jess and Karl met when Jess transferred to Illinois State in January of 2016. Funny enough, they met because Jess's boyfriend at the time knew Karl and some other Ultimate Frisbee friends attending ISU. Jess went to a party at Karl's college house with her ex and this is how Karl and Jess met. Now, this is where fate stepped in. The following Tuesday after this party, Karl and Jess went to their big World Geography lecture class with 300 people... They both just so happened to be standing right outside the door of the lecture hall, turn and see each other. They immediately recognized each other and knew that they just met the weekend before. With having no one to sit with, they decided to sit together. They became friends on their own terms through this class that semester. Fast forward to the summer and Jess and her ex had broken up. Jess sent Karl a snapchat related to something they did in class that previous semester and this sparked Karl and Jess talking. They hung out a few times over the summer and their first date was to see a movie... While Jess was in the bathroom, Karl put the arm rest up between their seats and Jess noticed it was down when she left (she makes fun of Karl for this a lot). The fall semester started at ISU and Jess and Karl spent a lot of time together every weekend and in just 2 weeks they made it official! One of Jess's favorite memories was when they were on the quad with a bunch of frisbee friends for Festival ISU and Karl kissed Jess in front of all his friends before leaving for class. This was their first kiss in front of others and later that day, they made it official! Jess and Karl thought having class together in Schroeder hall all those years ago was just a funny coincidence but now they know it was meant to be!

We moved into our first apartment together!

Karl and Jess jumped at the chance to buy a house when the opportunity was just right. The entire process was a whirlwind and went by fast. They both know that purchasing this home worked out exactly how it was supposed to!

Karl pulled off a big surprise on Jess and proposed to her the day before Thanksgiving 2020 with the help of her 2 best friends, Megan and Sara. Jess thought she was having a girls' night with Megan and Sara... They were going to get their nails done, get dinner and go back to Jess and Karl's new house to watch a movie! Or so Jess thought... As soon as Jess left to get her nails done, Karl got to work! He decorated their dining room table with flowers, cards Jess gave him over the years, candles and champagne then waited (not so) patiently for Jess to get back. When Jess got back to the house with her 2 best friends, she walked in the door and immediately smelled the FOUR candles Karl was burning and questioned aloud "what is Karl doing??" As Jess got closer to the dining room table, she could see the flowers and thought to herself "is Karl trying to make the house look nice for my friends?? It's not that dirty!!" then she saw the cards and champagne and knew what was about to happen. Karl walked out of their kitchen and got down on one knee and popped the question! Jess was worried about how she looked despite her nails being done and Karl, always quick with his words, assured her "you always look beautiful." Jess never anticipated coming home from a girls' night to a proposal (and had actually suspected the proposal would be on Thanksgiving); Karl was able to pull off a surprise just like Jess had wanted. They spent the rest of the evening calling close family & friends to share the exciting news and drinking champagne. The next day Karl and Jess were able to see both of their families for Thanksgiving and continued the celebration!