Abbie was born and raised in Leavenworth, KS and only moved once through her entire childhood. Michael spent the majority of his childhood moving around as his father was stationed at military assignments across the US.

Their lives briefly crossed paths when Michael’s family moved to Ft. Leavenworth and lived there from 2003 to 2005. Though, the two were far too young and unaware to have any memory of potential encounters.

However, Michael’s family enjoyed their time in Kansas and decided to move back in 2011. Michael went to Leavenworth High School while Abbie went to the local private high school Immaculata. Despite getting so close that they actually performed at a combined school choir concert in 2015, the two did not officially meet until…

Michael had gotten a job at Trails West Golf Course on Ft. Leavenworth in 2016, but only worked during the summer as he was attending college at Kansas State University. Abbie chose to continue her education at Park University, nearby to Leavenworth. She started working at Trails West at the end of 2017 and worked all throughout the year.

That brings us to May of 2018. Michael was back in town working for the summer. After having some brief, but pleasant, interactions at work, Abbie decided to make the first move. She got Michael’s phone number from a list behind the front desk, and sent him a text under the pretense of some important work business. Once the business had been handled, the conversation continued as friends rather than co-workers. They enjoyed each other’s company so much during work that Michael wondered if she’d want to spend more time together, leading him to ask a simple, yet vital question.

“Want to hang out sometime?”

The day of their first date! Michael took the both of them out to The Legends mall to grab some pizza and see a movie. However, he may have been a bit too casual with the initial request, and Abbie was not entirely under the impression that this was a date. Though her suspicions were raised after he offered to pay for dinner, and later confirmed when he asked to put his arm around her during the movie. She happily obliged and they were nearly inseparable for the rest of the evening.

Since their first date, Michael and Abbie began to spend more and more time with each other outside of work. With a lot of pressure from her family, Abbie invited Michael to meet them for the first time at a fireworks show at Powell Gardens in Kansas City. After getting settled in, the two decided to go for a walk around the gardens. During their walk they came across a fountain shooting up from the ground nearby. With not many people around, Michael wagered that Abbie wouldn’t dare run through the fountain and risk getting all wet. To which she replied,

“Wanna bet?”

After a quick dash through the water, Abbie came back and gave Michael a big, wet hug. For some reason, he thought this would be the perfect time to ask her to be his girlfriend. Officially! She was caught off guard, but said yes nonetheless.

College, college and more college. Boring! But Abbie and Michael made frequent trips to see each other all throughout their final two years studying. As time was winding down for one of them to lock in a job after graduation, Michael was offered a position at a company in Quincy, IL two months before the end of their senior year. They finished up their degrees and prepared to move in together for the first time!

The happy couple ventured out to Quincy, in a much quieter world than they had initially anticipated. With the global pandemic keeping many people in their homes, the two of them learned to enjoy spending lots of time with each other. Once pandemic concerns eased, they made their way out to surrounding cities for some new experiences. St. Louis was only 2 hours away so they made a few trips down there. And of course being only 4 hours from Chicago, they had to take advantage and visit at least once. Oddly enough, the most unique and enjoyable of the trips they took was to Toledo, OH where Abbie got to visit the hometown of one of her favorite characters in M*A*S*H.

Eventually the couple felt that they had done all they wanted to do in Quincy (and they really missed their family and friends). They began looking for jobs in the Kansas City area, found a nice little apartment and moved back closer to home.

Having been together for over 5 years at this point, it was a matter of “when”, not “if”, they were going to get married. Michael wanted to maintain some level of surprise, so after discussing definitely not proposing during their annual trip to Omaha, he went ahead and did just that.

Fancy restaurant, check. Private table, check. Crying in the middle of proposing, double check.

Oh, and she said yes!

And that brings us here! The future Mr. and Mrs. are so excited to be sharing their special day with you and cannot wait to celebrate.

See you soon!