We met at George Mason University in the Fall of 2017. Ryan was the Resident Advisor on the 5th floor of the Hampton Roads residence hall and Emalie was a resident on the opposite end of the floor. On February 23, 2018 Emalie e-mailed (yes, e-mailed) Ryan, teasing him in an attempt to flirt with him. Ryan gave Emalie his number and the rest is history. It wasn't until late March 2018 that things got "serious" and we started spending a lot of time together. Even though Emalie had her own RA on the other end of the 5th floor, our relationship was still a "no-no" so Emalie would "sneak" into Ryan's room to hang out or spend the night. Finally, in May 2018, Emalie moved out of the dorm and Ryan would post a selfie of them at a Yankees game with the hashtag #NotMyResident.

We graduated from George Mason University in May 2019 and a month later moved in together into an apartment in Alexandria, VA. In August 2019, Theo, our spunky orange cat, came home and our world was ROCKED. Theo became our sun, moon and stars! June 2020 through April 2023 we lived in Woodbridge, VA in a lovely condo. During this time, Emalie made a career change from OTF to Insight Global and got promoted, Ryan got promoted several times at work and graduated with his Master's Degree. More importantly, in July 2021, our sweet little Cami joined the family and became Theo's new favorite playmate! She's now Ryan's little BFF and still as small as she was at 7 months old.

In April 2023, we bought a townhome in Clifton, VA. Fate has a funny way of making things work out the way that they should. We fell in love with the house when we went to the open house, but we weren't ready to jump on it because it was over budget. Someone else actually went under contract the next day. Within a week, their offer fell through and we worked with our agent and lender to make our offer work for our budget. It was accepted quickly and here we are today, living in the home Emalie left in tears after seeing it for the first time because "we couldn't have it". We can confirm, we do not have buyers remorse and absolutely adore our neighborhood!

On September 18, 2023, we got engaged on the 18th hole green of the Harbor Town Links with the lighthouse in the background in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. If you know Emalie, you know this is her favorite place and may or may not have told Ryan years earlier that it should be the place he proposes. Ryan made reservations for us to go off on our own for a dinner date at the restaurant under the lighthouse. After watching "Full Swing" on Netflix together, we had agreed before we even got on the plane that we should go check out the 18th hole green that was shown in the series. So, when Emalie's parents dropped us off, we killed time before our reservation by walking around the marina to the green. Emalie's heart was POUNDING as we walked over there. She knew there was a chance it could happen that night but truly had no idea. She was definitely eyeing Ryan's pockets for a ring box! As we turned the corner to walk onto the green, there were barely any people around, but Emalie noted the photographer sitting by herself in a chair, camera in hand. In true Emalie fashion, she walked right past the photographer to get a better look at the 18th hole. Ryan suggested that we take a selfie with the lighthouse behind us, so we were back in front of the photographer. Emalie was fighting with the wind to keep her hair down as we took a selfie, so the photographer offered to take our photo on Emalie's phone. After she returned the phone and we were looking at the photos, Ryan snatched Emalie's phone, put it into his pocket and got down on one knee. It was truly the happiest moment of our lives and now Hilton Head has a special meaning for the both of us!