Hope to see you all in May!

Emma and I met at Gustavus Adolphus College in 2009. I asked her to take a picture of me with Jason Lezak and I remember thinking she was very cute and was nice enough to wait for me to meet one of my idols. I wanted to court Emma for several months but she was never single. In the winter of 2010, I texted her to see if she wanted to hang out anyways. She did and there was an immediate connection. We both had the same nerdy tastes in movies and she could beat me at video games. We would stay up late doing homework, watching TV and making inside jokes. I remember laughing all night in our dorm basement and Emma coming up with the phrase "sleep is only worth it if there's nothing better to do". We didn't get a lot of sleep that Spring... We started dating in 2010 including the rest of college and into our young careers. For several years after graduation, I lived south of the cities and drove to Brooklyn Park to work at Target HQ while Emma lived in Maple Grove, worked in Plymouth, Woodbury, and St. Paul, and drove to Apple Valley to volunteer at the MN Zoo. We found many stops along the way to work out, go on dates and grab late night dinners. Our adventures branched out to vacations together, going as far as Boston, Seattle and California.

Fast forward to the Summer of 2018. We are looking at taking a trip to Hawaii (which we've been trying to plan for a few years now). As we're going over details on a long walk, the topic of her brother's engagement comes up. Emma asks "when do you think we are going to get married?". I answer "I was going to ask you when we go to Hawaii!". We stop, hug and share a wonderful moment where we decide to make our relationship into a family. One evening, about a week into our trip, we were watching the sun set slowly on a northern pier in Hawaii. I opened the ring box behind her back to show several photographers what I was about to do. They got into position and I started asking her about our first few days together back in 2010. I asked if she remembered how her love of nerdy movies and video game skills made me jokingly ask "what are you doing for the rest of your life?"? I told her I knew since the beginning that I wanted to grow old with someone who will always keep my life interesting and challenge me to be my best. I got to ask my best friend to marry me on 12/02/2018 and now a year and half later we are preparing to get married on 05/23/2020. The wedding planning has been fun, frustrating and involved many late nights. Luckily, we have a lot of experience with those. Thank you for reading our story and we wish you all the best as we move into the future together.

On May 23, 2020 - we got married! The wedding was beautiful and intimate, attended by our immediate family, lovely pastor, and amazing photographer! It was perfect for the times and a great way to start off married life; peacfully and without stress. Might I recommend everyone have a quaint first wedding? ;D Steven and I have always loved being in nature and that is what we got out of this first go. Just lovely! The remainder of 2020 consisted of us settling in to living together, watching way too much tv, and wishing we could visit friends. With my job requiring me to go into work, we've had to be extra careful. 2021 - Come the dawning of a new year!...and COVID is still very present. So, we made the difficult decision to postone yet again and focus on staying healthy and safe, trying our hand at a few home improvement projects, and adding a couple additions to our household! Stay tuned to meet Rin and Kida (a couple-a little cuties from the Bitty Kitty Brigade). Stay safe everyone and we really do hope to see you in 2022! Hopefully sooner if this pandemic can get a handle on itself.

It is now the end of February 2022 and while COVID is still in our lives, we are finally feeling hopeful that this big life event, now a celebration of our marriage instead of an actual wedding, can happen! We're putting together finishing touches on wedding prep, starting to hang out with family and friends in person again, have had the kittens for a whole year, and are just living a generally great life that we can't wait to share with you all in May! While the venues have not changed, due to the pandemic, we are shrinking the size of our event by some in the hopes that we can keep everyone safe. Hope to see all your happy and healthy selves soon. Love you all! Emma and Steven