I met Valerie at a happy hour with my co-worker, Matt. We originally went to Craft, which I thought was kind of lame, so after a few drinks I proposed that we head over to Bakersfield and get some food; Valerie was in. When we got to Bakersfield, Valerie immediately ordered tequila shots and I was immediately intrigued. A week later, after many hours of research, I hatched a plan to get Valerie out again via LinkedIn message. She completely misinterpreted my message and was convinced I was interested in her friend, but eventually figured it out after a night discussing Fall Out Boy and the cons of camping. Soon after, we went on our first date where I told Valerie about an upcoming Fall Out Boy concert that I was interested in taking her to. Even though she immediately bought tickets with all her friends (and not me), we have been together ever since.

I met Alex at a happy hour after work through a mutual friend, Matt (and now groomsman, thanks Matt). By the end of the happy hour, Alex, Matt and I were the last ones left and we all decided to grab dinner at one of our now-favorite mexican restaurants, Bakersfield. Alex and I connected over our shared love of tequila... surprise, surprise. The night ended and a few weeks passed. Then one night, while sitting through one of my classes during my master's program, I got a message from Alex on LinkedIn (yes... LinkedIn!?) asking if I wanted to set up a happy hour again sometime soon. Not being one to turn down a happy hour, I happily agreed. As we arrived at the second happy hour, I was positive that Alex was interested in another friend. As the night went on, we naturally gravitated towards each other and talked all night, connecting over our mutual dislike of hiking and interest in traveling and 90s music. That night he asked me on our first date, and we haven't looked back since!

I planned an elaborate day in Chicago where we would see the sights, ultimately surprising Valerie with a proposal at the Bean, followed by an additional surprise dinner with our parents on the river. Everything was going according to plan until Valerie mentioned to me the morning of that it was supposed to thunderstorm early in the day. So, I immediately rushed Valerie to the Bean (before coffee) to ask her to marry me. We asked a random tourist to take our picture in front of the Bean to try to capture our special moment. Turns out, we picked a terrible tourist who couldn’t work the camera on an iPhone and basically missed the whole thing, but it didn’t matter because she said yes! We ended the night with dinner and celebrating with our parents. We can’t wait to celebrate our marriage with all our friends and family in May!