We Got Married! Come Celebrate with Us!

Who has time to find a date? This was question that defined how we both viewed dating in the days prior to meeting one another. Neither one of us expected anything from the most recent dating app Bumble, but it just so happened to connect two people who were wide awake and swiping at three in the morning. The shared exasperation with the Twin Cities less than friendly nightlife was what initially got us talking to each other and eventually lead to our first date. Our first date was an overnights breakfast or "dinner" for the uninitiated at the world-renowned Tamarack Taproom. I won't say it was the best only because my now wife told me I was awkward to my face, but I did walk away with her number so jokes on her. After the first date, many more followed as we continued to bond over all the cool stuff we couldn't do during the day, day and evening shift people blaming us for their own problems, books and shows we were enjoying at the time and so much more that we almost always stayed longer than we intended. Several dates later, I met the one who would become my future roommate, an emotionally unavailable rabbit named Onyx. Over the years I have told my now wife several times that the bunny is smart enough to both know what emotional manipulation is as well as put it into practice, but my concerns have fallen on deaf ears. Several months went by and we decided it was time for me to put more effort into getting Onyx to like the idea of me sticking around, so in the summer of 2020, we moved in together. Since the move, Sudha and I have been spending more time together and learning more about what it means to be a couple. Social events that were never really my speed became important to me the same way they were to her, and vice versa for some of my less than social events. It was these moments of varying sizes that let me know I was ready for the next step; I was ready for us to get a dog together. Shortly after the adoption of our new family member and the destruction of Onyx’s only child life, I set to work planning the perfect spot to propose with a ring that I did not pick out. We planned a weekend away in Bemidji with the intention of wandering the state parks. One piece of these state parks was an overlook called Sunset Outlook that I had identified as an excellent proposal location. We get to the park and as we’re making our way towards sunset lookout hoping to get there by sunset, were stopped by warnings of active hunting going on in the area. Since neither one of us just so happened to be wearing hunter orange we had to call the romantic walk and my proposal off for the time being. It was during the drive back to the air BNB that I realized I simply wasn’t okay with waiting any longer. So started a fire, brought out the marshmallows and got down on one knee. Sudha, doing her best to be surprised by the proposal she was definitely not expecting during the weekend. So, in October of 2021, we were officially engaged. For a short period of time we thought about how we would go about the process of marriage and eventually decided that we would elope in December of the same year, tell people after the fact and leave the reception for a day in the future. That reception in where you, the reader, come in. From this point on, you are also part of our story, so I hope you will come and celebrate our elopement with a wedding that’s all party and no ceremony.