Initial meeting: Kiara and Sean met during “Maymester” at James Madison University in 2016. Kiara was hosting a get together before a pool day at her place in Aspen Heights. Some of her friends asked if they could invite others, and Kiara being the “Monica” of the group who likes to be the “Hostess with the mostest” was more than happy to have new friends over. One of those additionally invited was Sean. Although they have had mutual friends for years, they’ve never crossed paths until this moment. After the few hours spent in the same vicinity, small talk was made and social media followed, but neither spoke to each other for the rest of the summer. Where it really began: Fast forward to September 2016- Sean’s fraternity threw a “FROG Week” bash (or known as the B-B-B-B-Banger) where they had ran into each other. This time, the small talk turned into conversation and phone numbers were exchanged. After a couple weeks into the semester and as fate kept serendipidously joining the two together, a special event was coming up in his fraternity: Bid Celebration. At this time, the brothers were to invite a date to the event. Kiara, being friends with a good amount of the members, had planned to go with a friend until those plans fell through. Sean, had not asked anyone yet. After a football tailgate, Sean and Kiara were in a car on their way to the next move for the day when their friends were talking about this upcoming celebration. They had a discussion about the dates they planned to bring. Kiara mentioned she was not going anymore and Sean stated he had no one planned to go with. Jeff (yes this is a shoutout to you!) took this opportunity to play matchmaker and said- “Wait, Sean you don’t have a date and Kiara you now don’t have someone to take you... So, Sean you can take Kiara!” And as you all probably know at this point, Sean, in fact, did take Kiara to that Bid Celebration.

The proposal happened on September 12, 2020 in front of Kiara’s family at the High Roller in Las Vegas. Never in a million years did Kiara or Sean think they would be engaged in Vegas! After Sean had asked for her parents’ blessing in August, he had to come up with the plan for the proposal. You see, Sean wanted to take a summer trip to Europe and propose to Kiara in Paris. Thanks to Covid, his plan couldn’t come to life and he did not want to put it off for much longer. Kiara’s family had already planned a mini family reunion in Las Vegas coming up in September. After some discussion with her parents, they thought- “Vegas has a Paris... why not there?” Then he thought about how her family would be there to witness this occasion and it’s the perfect opportunity to include them, so why not!? But, the hard part would be not letting Kiara know even a hint of what was coming up. So, the only people who knew were the parents and siblings to prevent any sort of leak that she could catch on to! The day had come. Her family would sneak Sean around to figure out the game plan for the big moment to happen that evening. They all had a big lunch, discussed their plans for getting dressed up for a fancy night out, and to catch the sunset at the highest point of Vegas. While getting to the ferris wheel cart, the ring was being sneakily passed around until it ended in Sean’s pocket. Because of Covid restrictions, they had only allowed 10 people per cart. As it turned out, there happened to be that perfect amount of people in their party to now make this moment an exclusive event! (No pressure, Sean.) As they went up in elevation, the sky painting its colors of the sunset, and the cart reaching at its peak, that’s when Sean took his moment to get on one knee and ask Kiara to spend the rest of their lives together. It was the easiest YES! she had ever said. *Fun Fact: The ring’s design is actually called “Paris!”