We were set up by a mutual friend to go on a fraternity's "Mountain Weekend" our junior fall of college (so romantic, we know). Initially not thinking much of it, William was happy he had a date who would provide snacks and alcohol for the weekend and Briana was just excited to go and spend time with her other friends going on the trip. After spending time together though, it was clear we liked each other - and we were both very thrown off by it. Briana was taking off to Europe in the spring to study abroad, leaving William behind at good old Wake Forest, so neither of us thought it made sense to start something serious. After spending time together for the remaining weeks of fall semester, we said our goodbyes, not really knowing if we'd pick up where we left off when Briana got back (spoiler: we did!). We talked intermittently through the semester and once Briana returned, we started dating just a few weeks later. From our last year at Wake Forest, to our few post-grad years in DC, and now our life in Philadelphia, the rest is history!

We were headed on a trip to Ireland in June 2019, where much of Briana's family is from. Our anniversary also fell while we were there, so William thought it was the perfect time to get down on one knee. Before meeting up with family, the two of us took a road trip around the Ring of Kerry in southwest Ireland and stopped at a hotel on the water to spend our anniversary. We had dinner reservations at the hotel and William suggested we get a drink at the bar first. At this point, Briana was pretty suspicious and nervous! After we finished our drinks, we had some extra time to kill so William made another suggestion - this time that we take a walk around the property and get a few "anniversary photos". Cue even more suspicion, since William never goes out of his way to request that we take photos. We started to walk down a path towards the bay and just as we got to a little clearing, he popped the question! He even had a photographer hiding out in the distance snapping our photos as it happened. We then went to dinner, celebrated with lots of champagne, and Facetimed family and friends for the rest of the night from our balcony!