We met at work in Hartford, CT in 2017. Isabel worked in business development and sales while Stephen was on the portfolio management team at Conning Asset Management. We would often connect on projects for prospective clients and quickly became close friends and confidants to each other. As the years progressed, that professional connection and friendship grew into something more, and we started dating at the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Two separate apartments in West Hartford, CT quickly became one - with much of our time spent together at each other's homes. Mostly Isabel's. Fortunately, we made it out of quarantine still very much in love and ready for everything the world had to offer - good and bad and in between. Together.

Stephen proposed on a warm October day in Brooklyn, NY. He convinced Isabel they were meeting his colleagues at a work event in the city. Instead, he knelt down on one knee under the Manhattan Bridge and asked Isabel if she wanted to marry him. And without question, Isabel said YES!! There was one more surprise...Stephen had arranged for all of our close friends and family to meet us at a local brewery that evening. It was so special to be able to share the news right away with all of the people we love and finally let Stephen have a much-deserved drink!

We are currently living in Brooklyn, NY just blocks away from the East River - a place in which we have called home for the past three years. In this time, Isabel has completed her first year as a senior credit analyst at a large, publicly traded life insurance company and Stephen recently joined Morgan Stanley as an executive director on the insurance solutions team. We have loved living in the old school Italian heritage of our neighborhood, Carroll Gardens, with our precocious Australian shepherd, Tucker. We are so excited for what is to come and cannot wait to celebrate our marriage this September with our closest family and friends!