I met Alena through my best friend, Jake, during my freshman year at Grand Valley in 2016. I thought: "Not only is this girl gorgeous but she also loves golf." I went back to my parents and told them I had met the girl I was going to make my wife. At the time, we were both in different chapters in our lives. Over the next six years, we continued to run into each other and become great friends.

Fast forward to the summer of 2023, I was determined to make our friendship something more. I knew it was going to be a long shot but I also never lay up on par 5's because there's always a chance I could hit a miracle shot and land on the green. I remember the first time calling her out of the blue, I was so nervous, I'm pretty sure she could hear my heartbeat through the phone, I asked if she wanted to go to my sister's college outing and she straight up told me "no, I'm busy that weekend." I definitely did not think our love story would start like that. I tried to set up a few more opportunities to hang out with Alena but struck out. Finally, enough was enough. I knew I had one chance to be upfront and honest with Alena, so I did what anyone else would do: I texted her, asking if she would go out to dinner with me. Without even responding to the text message, she called me right away. "You better be serious, if this is a joke I'm going to kill you." was all she said. Two weeks later, there I was, knocking on her door with flowers in hand. She had pasta ready for me when I got there, it wasn't what I was used to but Alena told me she was willing to take some cooking classes from my mom. That was all I needed to hear to seal the deal. The REST IS HISTORY BABYYYYY

A&G

Wedding Day

4:00 PM–4:30 PM

ceremony

5:30 PM–10:30 PM

Reception