For 10+ years Alyssa and Sam lived in the same neighborhood of Hunting Creek in Louisville, KY just three streets away from each other. They played the same sports and ran around with the same neighborhood kids. They even went to the University of Kentucky just one year apart. But somehow they never met until they both ended up in New York City after college and a mutual family friend recommended they reach out to each other. After a few months of awkward Facebook messages (some debate over who messaged who first), they finally pinned down their first "date" which, appropriately, was at the UK bar in NYC called Jack Demsey's for the UK/Florida football game. Date one led to date two which led to Sam and Alyssa moving to Chicago and starting a life together in a new home!

Sam planned a dream proposal for me, which combined all of my favorite things: our families, Christmas and my parents' house. Both of us spent Christmas morning opening presents and enjoying breakfast with our families. Sam told me he would be coming over at 2 PM to celebrate Christmas with my family. Shortly after opening presents my mom encouraged my family to get ready for "family pictures" that the neighbor was going to be coming over to take later that afternoon (this was her sneaky way of making sure we all looked nice). Sam came over at 2 PM on the dot and everyone was acting completely normal, so I had no idea anything was going to be happen. After hanging out with my family for a while, we all sat down to exchange presents. When I finished opening my presents, Sam told me to close my eyes because I had one more present outside. The entire time I thought I was getting a puppy! Sam led me to my parents' back porch and told me to open my eyes. Sam was on his knee asking me to marry him. We were surrounded by our families taking photos and celebrating with us, letters covered in rose petals saying "MARRY ME," and tons of candles! It was the best surprise and way better than a puppy!