Like all great love stories, ours starts with us meeting... except neither of us actually remember meeting each other. We both attended Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Katie was studying to become a Physical Therapist and I was studying Supply Chain Management, to which my parents are still unclear what I went to college for. Our friend groups were always intertwined and we would always end up at many of the same events in college. However, our real story starts after I graduated in 2016 - I moved to Columbus Ohio and quickly realized I had no idea how to date. Luckily for me, Katie was always a text away to ask for girl advice. Unluckily for me, I found myself completly friend-zoned by Katie. When questioned by my friends about what kind of girl I wanted to date, I found myself describing Katie. I decided then that I would ask her to be my date for a friend's wedding. We danced and partied the entire night away and I thought to myself that this was someone I could happily see myself with.

After our friends wedding, Katie and I talked about going on a date in the foreign land of Cleveland. We went to try a restaurant called Brew Garden in her hometown. While at dinner, I wanted to seem interesting so I ordered a side of Cheese Curds. To this day, Katie claims she thought it was weird that I ordered Cheese Curds, but we know she was intrigued by my extensive palate. I decided to up the ante for our second date and bought tickets to see Taylor Swift in Columbus. Again, the entire night was perfect and I thought to myself that I wanted this girl to be my girlfriend. After the concert, we decided to get some gyros from a street vendor. It was in that moment, with grilled chicken, veggies and tzatziki sauce between pita bread in hand, I asked Katie to be my girlfriend.

I wanted to ask Katie to marry me where it all started, back in Pittsburgh. Under the premise that we were celebrating my mom's birthday, we went home to visit my parents and sister, Priyanka, who was in town visiting. The plan was simple, get Katie downtown without her figuring it out. Understanding that my family likes to putz around, Priyanka asked Katie to go shopping and to get their nails done. Secretly, we needed to kill time because Katie's parents were coming down from Cleveland. Together they were going to set up a Marry Me sign at the Pointe in downtown Pittsburgh for us. Knowing my family likes to take pictures, it did not seem out of the ordinary when we said my Dad wanted to take pictures at the Pointe before dinner. As we got closer to the fountain in downtown, I started to get anxious and excited at the same time. Finally, Katie saw her father and I think in that moment she knew what was to come next. In front of family and friends, I got down on one knee and asked her to be mine. And that is just the start of the rest of our lives.