We're Getting Married!

After swiping aimlessly on Bumble one lovely summer evening we came across each other's profiles. We couldn't tell you how the conversation started - apparently Bumble purges all their data every 30 days - but after chatting for a few weeks we met at Boss Bar in River North to start off our first date. It wasn't exactly love at first site - Kris spent a fair amount of time talking about how he worked at Mike's (groomsmen) family's funeral home moving inventory (think about it) and Shaina found this to be a rather strange first date subject. After we wrapped up drinks at Boss Bar we headed over to Millennium Park for Chicago's final summer "Movies in the Park" series. Kris is a big fan of all things 80's and the final movie of the summer happened to be The Breakfast Club. You'd think the stars would have aligned that night, nothing could have been further from the truth. We went 2 1/2 months without a second date, but thanks to Kris's persistent nature wound up meeting again after Shaina finished the NY Marathon (which Kris had been very encouraging during) and have been inseparable every since!

Since Shaina's favorite activity in the world is hiking, Kris wanted to have the proposal be in front of friends and family in her home state of Arizona. To plan everything out, Kris enlisted the help of Shaina's friend Dena and her mother Sandra. Dena and Sandra were kind enough to scout trails to find the perfect place to propose - and went on several hikes on Kris's behalf. He ended up going with the Lost Dog Trail near Scottsdale, AZ. The plan was set. Dena recommended the four of us go on a group hike while we were in town for Spring Training. Much to Shaina's annoyance, Dena and Matt backed out the morning of due to an "ankle injury". Shaina being Shaina, she was pretty irritated and started to look up more challenging hikes we could do on our own. Kris had to make up a fake injury to continue with the easier hike to keep the plan in motion. We left the house first so Kris could make a unexpected pit stop. This allowed Shaina's friends and family to get to the Lost Dog Trail and hide behind some shrubbery before we arrived. Things almost backfired when Shaina started driving the wrong direction and had to make a u-turn. Little did she know she was driving right next to her family on the way out to the trailhead. Once everyone was in place, Kris got the green light to start the hike. Because Shaina kept attempting to take an alternate trail, things took longer than anticipated. In addition to this, she also stopped to pet at least 6 dogs on the trail itself - common practice for Shaina anytime she sees a dog... As we got a bit further into the trail, Kris finally saw a tennis shoe in the middle of the trail - a clue as to where he needed stop and pop the question. He did so, she said yes, and the rest is history!