It was July 10th, 2014 and a young Brandon and Vanessa were romping through downtown Madison with their respective friend groups. It was a Thursday night, so in typical UW-student fashion, they all arrived at the Plaza Tavern. Among the pool tables and arcade games, Brandon spotted Vanessa under the glow of the neon lights. His interest was piqued. “Who is this cute blonde girl that looks so happy near the bar? And it looks like her drink is almost empty?” He said hello, then performed the ultimate romantic gesture for a 21-year-old: he bought her a $2 Long Island Iced Tea. Vanessa remembers being struck by how much laughter and light he brought to the conversation. Brandon remembers how much Vanessa smiled and teased him. He wasn’t totally sure she liked him, but he did know it sure was easy to talk to her. They chatted the rest of the night away, completely disinterested in the rest of their plans they previously had for the night. A few more Long Islands later, the evening drew to a close and they happily exchanged numbers before parting ways. It was at that moment that Brandon made it a mission to get to know this girl better. Little did he know that it would be a worthy test of his persistence and grit as it would be 6 months before they had their first date night burger together and 15 months before he could call her his girlfriend. Luckily, Brandon knows a thing or two about projects that take a while, and this was an important one. Some of their most memorable early dates include enabling their mutual love of tacos and margaritas, getting lost in the UW Arboretum, and watching How to Train Your Dragon in Brandon’s attic apartment, then letting it play 4 more times back to back as they stayed up all night talking and laughing together, unaware of the hours flying by. In the years following, the two have shared many fantastic life adventures together, including trips with tequila serving donkeys, birthday Curdapaloozas, and beer bacon cheese fests; graduations and then hard fought graduate degrees, moves from downtown Madison to the rolling cornfields of Fitchburg, new jobs and new startups, new facial hair, and adopting their kitty baby Wilbur. Fast forward to August 12, 2022. Brandon and Vanessa were on a vacation to Galena, IL, to a B&B on the Mississippi where they had taken their favorite vacation together 4 years earlier. Immediately after unloading their bags, Brandon insisted on taking a walk to stretch their legs. They started off on a stroll on some train tracks along the Mississippi, reminiscing about their walk along the same trail 4 years ago. After walking at least a mile, Vanessa said it was getting late, she was hungry and wanted to get dinner. Brandon insisted they continue. Vanessa, suspecting nothing, begrudgingly agreed, trying to be a good sport. Eventually the two came across a pristine orange rose sitting inside the train tracks. Vanessa, having listened to way too many true crime podcasts, stopped immediately, convinced that it was a booby trap and that there were people hiding in the bushes waiting to assault some innocent hikers. Brandon approached the rose to show her it was safe, picked it up, and handed it to Vanessa as he got down on one knee, pulling a wooden box from his pocket. There, with the backdrop of the sun setting over the Mississippi river, Brandon asked Vanessa if she would marry him. After blubbering out some version of “yes,” Vanessa turned as they heard cheers from some bushes nearby. The smiling heads of their friends Eli and Jordan poked out from a bush as Beyonce started blasting from a speaker. They had arrived earlier in the day to hike down to the spot, set up the rose (and replace the first rose when it got run over by a train), and set up a post-proposal picnic (complete with celebratory Long Islands)! Vanessa felt validated that there were, indeed, people hiding in the bushes. The pair then ecstatically enjoyed their first vacation as husband-and-wife-to-be.