Our love story began like every other great love story- a grouchy teenage boy and a clueless teenage girl. Brendan and I met at Heritage Farm Ice Cream during the summer of 2014. It was his snippy, short-winded tutorial of the steps on making a brownie sundae that made my heart skip a beat (literally, I was kind of scared). After a few weeks of working together, and as my familiarity with ice cream recipes grew, I soon began to see the kind, funny, hard working person that Brendan was. It was too bad he was off the market. But, don’t worry- this wasn’t for long.

One torrential downpouring night, Brendan came to my window and crawled in shortly after midnight. He was complaining of his relationship and how unhappy he was. So, of course I gave him my advice, obviously to break up with this girl and to move on (this is when my matron of honor, Kera, says “Makk came knocking”). From this point on, Brendan and I were inseparable, from Halloween parties to walks around the reservoir to homework dates (or should I say dates where I did Brendan’s homework), we were the best of friends. It wasn’t until October 26, 2014 that he asked me to be his girlfriend and of course I said yes.

During our time together, we accomplished so much. We graduated from high school together in 2016, he got his first job as an electrician apprentice and I got accepted to Rivier University for my bachelor’s degree in Psychology. Brendan got accepted into the electrical union program for IBEW 103 and later finished their journeyman program and I graduated with my undergraduate degree and later finished my master’s program in Applied Behavior Analysis. Through all of these great individual achievements, we had many together- moving in together, adopting our dogs, Baylee and Briggs, and continuing to celebrate each passing anniversary together for 9 FRIGGIN YEARS. At this point, you’re probably wondering why the heck he was waiting to put a ring on my finger, because I was too (and all of our friends and families).

In April of 2023, we took our first big trip together with my family and some friends to Oahu, Hawaii. Before we left, I had a feeling he was going to propose- and so did all of my friends because of my constant questioning the few weeks before. My super sleuth self thought everything was a hint: Brendan packing his own luggage including packing some dress pants (who packs DRESS PANTS for Hawaii?) and his constant hope to drive in a white jeep for our rental car (white screamed wedding bells to me). Little did I know, these “hints” would confirm all suspicions I had. I remember going to watch sunrise with my brother, Justin, and his girlfriend, Niki. Brendan and I had gone for a walk down the beach and I had looked behind to see where Justin and Niki were. And it was the moment I saw them both SPRINTING down the beach with their phones raised out that I knew the time was FINALLY happening. It was moments after that my best friend dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him (this is all I remember because I completely blacked out in shock) and I said yes!

Brendan and I are so excited for this new chapter together as we plan our forever and cannot wait to celebrate our union with our friends and families on December 14, 2024!