We met at one of the best coffee shops in the city of Cincinnati, Coffee Emporium. Sorry make that two coffee shops. Coffee Emporium has multiple locations, something we realized that day. Lauren and I planned to grab coffee on that Monday since we both were working at Fifth Third at the time and had the day off. We both thought we were stood up waiting around the coffee shop wondering where the other one was until we decided to pick up the phone and call each other, only to realize one of the coffee shops did not have a “second floor”. Great ice breaker! Thirty minutes later, we were finally in the same coffee shop line to order. Lauren also hid the fact that she had never had coffee before. “I’ll have what he’s having” was her order. She’s been a coffee addict ever since. We stayed talking and laughing for well over 2 hours. We didn’t want the date to end and haven’t stopped talking to each other ever since.

Since moving to Chicago we have always enjoyed sipping coffee and watching the sunrise from our view. One gem now stands out a bit more in the morning. A place we said we always wanted to go which was the Cupola at London House right across the river. Now a reminder of a new beginning in Chicago. Since we had picked out the engagement ring at Tiffany together I knew Lauren would be trying to catch hints as to when I would propose. To throw her off the scent I threw in a number of decoys that to my fortunate surprise worked the morning of Saturday, February 6th. Earlier in the week I had let Lauren know we were supposed to be meeting one of my colleagues and his wife for brunch. As I was rushing Lauren out the door, day of, I received a text they had changed the location. Only to arrive to the second restaurant to knock on the door “realizing” they were closed. My brother Jared playing the part of my colleague then gave me a call and we were on our way to the spot next door, LondonHouse. Taking the elevator up to the 23rd floor and walking out into the Cupola a trail of rose petals leading me to drop down on one knee and ask Lauren, “Will you Marry Me?”. She said “YES!” Wiping away tears, taking in the view and sipping on champagne it was hard to feel the Chicago cold.