we met in the summer of 2015 (10 years ago this year!) at a bar in lincoln park. ankush was only living in chicago for the summer doing some research before business school and shannon was home for the summer from college. it was extremely serendipitous because ankush had no ties to chicago and shannon was supposed to stay in dc that summer to work, but she decided last minute to come back home for a few months. when we met, we instantly connected over our love for Italy and good food. after that summer, we remained good friends until ankush reached out during the pandemic (in august 2020) and asked if shannon wanted to give dating a try. she said yes and the rest is history!

the day started off strong with shannon guessing ankush's whole plan! the entire day leading up to the proposal, he tried to play off cool and pretend nothing special was happening. the original plan was to go for a nice, romantic walk in lincoln park, ending at the lily pond where we could sit and enjoy the moment before ankush popped the question. however, when we got to lincoln park, the lily pond was still closed for the winter and wasn't due to open for the spring until the following weekend. so instead we just walked around the park until we made our way to the boardwalk at south pond. at this point, shannon was fully convinced the proposal wasn't actually happening that day. a tear or two may have been shed. ankush sat next to her on the boardwalk and comforted her, until he found a quiet moment with no people around. then he asked shannon to stand so we could take some pictures, and he got down on one knee to pop the question!