Ally's mother always told her to find a group of people to play board games with when she started college - making jokes about that being the best way to find someone to date. It turns out that Patricia might just have been psychic because we met on the very first night of college when Ahlad texted a groupchat to invite people to meet up and play board games. That night of board games and fun kicked off a series of life changing friendships that brought us to where we are today.

As we got to know one another better, they soon realized that we had grown up only half an hour away from each other in central Pennsylvania but did not meet until attending college in Delaware. Bonding over shared experiences, interests and hobbies, we soon decided to pursue a relationship beyond friendship. For our first date when we visited UDairy for ice cream and took a stroll through the nearby botanic garden to the day we graduated, we were lucky enough to make four years of happy memories together.

Photo: The original board game squad dressed as the characters from Clue for Halloween a few years later.

After college, we moved to Pittsburgh for graduate school. It was 2020, and there was not much to do for fun. But we made the perhaps a tad crazy decision to adopt a dog only two weeks after moving. As a result, Moxie joined our little family with all the energy and excitement we could ever need. Not too many weeks later, Ahlad bought a ring.

A year later, we were settled into our new lives in the city. In November 2021, Ahlad decided to propose. He spent the week coding an escape room game under the guise that he was making it for Ally's mom who was visiting that weekend. We celebrated the proposal by heading to an in-person escape game that very night.

Photo: Celebrating our escape game win

In the time since then, we have made many friends, found new hobbies, and had many adventures. We even adopted a little sister for Moxie. Now we are ready to embark on our married life together and are so excited to celebrate with you!