Sam and Kathleen met in Denver in the fall of 2019, when a group of single, fun, and loud Kansas City girls met a gaggle of louder and even more rambunctious Denver boys. The gang became fast friends, and soon couples fell hard as time passed and sparks ignited. Kathleen and Sam spent nights out together, went on weekend trips to the mountains, and played on a kickball league together, but it wasn’t until the New Year’s Eve ball drop at the turn of 2020 that they found each other at Neon Baby looking for a kiss. The rest is history, as they say. Their first date to Woodie Fisher turned into a second date making homemade gnoochi for Valentine’s Day. Then came a date driving around Denver trying different taco trucks, double dates to cocktail bars in LoHi, and of course ski dates to Abay. Just as they began to really connect, Kathleen signed on to a non-negotiable contract position painting her childhood house with her sisters right as the pandemic hit. Over the following six weeks of manual hard labor, Sam and Kath stayed connected, and when she finally came back to Denver, they became boyfriend and girlfriend in May 2020. The Denver days were filled with sunny bluebird outings - bopping around the city from house to house and bar to bar, driving up to the mountains to ski in the winter or camp in the spring, or flying to Mexico as often as they could afford it. They learned from each other: Kathleen taught Sam how to eat better, how to take care of his skin, and most importantly how to play tennis (still working on that). Sam taught Kathleen how to eat tastier, how to sail (still working on that too), and everything he knew about Denver to make Kathleen stay as long as she could. One common denominator of their relationship was Lake Michigan. Every summer, they would make their way back to their families and spend all their PTO at the lake - swimming, biking, sailing, and playing racket sports as they went from White Lake up to Epworth and back down again. It was the bedrock of their relationship and reflected their values: family, friends, and community. After three years in Colorado, the decision to go to graduate school came out of a commitment to each other to provide the best lives for themselves and a future together. Those two years apart were both the hardest and most rewarding years of their relationship. They learned discipline, patience, and how to be intentional with their time together. Kathleen had a full time tech job, an internship, and night classes, while Sam had full time classes, recruiting, a startup, and a recurring upset tummy, yet they still found time to FaceTime every two hours. It did not take long after completing their degrees to commit to marriage. The summer of 2025 brought their families together on the shores of Lake Michigan over a mid-August sunset to officially seal the deal and drop a knee. Now Sam and Kathleen have started a life together in Boston for the careers they set out to achieve. If you are invited to our wedding, it means you have been along for the ride with us over the past six years, and you mean an extraordinary amount to both of us. We can’t wait to celebrate with you in Kansas City! See you in August!