Alex's Side of the Story:

We are an online success story (much like match.com but for gays)! We talked on a Thursday which is when Charlie went to go play Poker with some schoolmates in Pittsburgh where we both lived. By Sunday we were still talking every day and he had actually asked me out to dinner. I was debating not to go because rarely did an online date go well for me. We met at 5801 and ended up talking the whole night. I asked him what he was doing the next day and we scheduled our next date. We kept seeing each other every day from then on!

We quickly kept talking and talking and then eventually moved in together and lived a perfect balance of obsessive sports fanatic and and neurotic music nerd. Finally, while I was in Philly one weekend visiting friends I called Charlie and in the middle of sobbing hysterically and eating a Philly Cheese-steak I asked him if he would say yes if I proposed to him. I planned a surprise engagement party at a Pirates vs. Indians game. I asked him at Point State Park in front of our family and the rest has been amazing history.

It is great to enjoy our times of eating Jimmy Johns on Thursdays, our many trips to the Pirate games and traveling to new places, enjoying them with friends, and sharing memories with each other that we are building on for a lifetime.

Can't wait to start this new journey!

This is the beginning of the rest of our lives!

Charlie's Side of the Story:

I was walking through Shadyside on my way to a weekly poker game with several of my friends from Carnegie Mellon one Thursday late in April of 2013 when I heard the familiar notification sound from grindr (yes, we met on grindr!) come from my pocket. We started a conversation that distracted me from poker (I was one of the first eliminated that night), but in hindsight I was definitely glad for the distraction! We decided to meet and have a first date that Sunday at 5801 Video Lounge in Shadyside, and we hit it off immediately! Ever since that first date we've been pretty much inseparable, and our relationship has continued to grow and flourish during our three years together.

Last summer, while I was waiting for my real engineering job to get started (thank God it finally did about a month later!), I was assisting with the construction of new offices for the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh. July 3rd was a Friday, and I took a half day off to get a jumpstart on the holiday weekend. I called Alex to tell him I was coming home, and he informed me that he was at Kennywood with a friend (it was actually all of the friends he had invited to town to celebrate us getting engaged that night, but Alex is a good liar when he needs to be). I asked if I could tag along, but he told me that they weren't planning on staying much longer so there was no point in me coming (and somehow this didn't raise a red flag). I walked into our apartment, where I found my Cleveland Indians jersey laying out on the table with a note from Alex: "Put this on and meet me at the point at 5!" At this point I figured he'd probably invited our families to come watch the Indians play against the Pirates that night and didn't think much more of it.

I left the apartment at about 4:30 and headed downtown, getting to the entrance to Point State Park right at 5:00. As I was walking into the park, which was busy with foot traffic because of the Three Rivers Regatta, I got a text from an apparently frantic Alex asking me where I was and that I should go to the fountain at the point. It was that moment when it really hit me that the proposal was about to happen, and I only had the walk across the park to get myself prepared. As I got close to the fountain, Alex came running up to me, pulling me around to where my parents, Eddie, and his mom and grandpa were waiting for us. He got in front of me, told me he had no idea what he was doing, and asked if he should get down on one knee. I responded "I mean I know what you're about to do, but sure!" He knelt down, pulled the ring box out of his pocket, and asked me to marry him. And since you're reading this (if anyone is actually reading this), you already know that I answered yes! The proposal even got us some shocked gasps from the crowd at the point, and once I said yes several people congratulated us as they walked by!

I was right about us going to watch the Indians play against the Pirates, but what I didn't know was that Alex had rented out a club suite and invited all of our closest friends to celebrate with us (well, as Mike Hogue has said, they were there either to celebrate with us or console Alex, but there was no way I was going to say no!). In the end, I was glad that I left the proposal business to Alex, because he came up with a way more romantic and amazing night than I ever could have!

Wyndham Pittsburgh University Center