Ryan and Briana met the old fashioned way; by both swiping right on each other’s Bumble accounts in the winter of 2016. Briana started the conversation with Ryan and they chatted a while on the app before exchanging numbers and continuing to communicate through text messages regularly. Both enjoyed talking to each other every day but had yet to meet up in person.


It was New Year’s Eve of that same year and Briana had gone to a party with her friend Caitlin in Madison. Ryan was also celebrating the holiday with some of his friends downtown. They weren’t planning on meeting up that night but it worked out just right that both Ryan and Briana had ended up at the Great Dane Brewing Company downtown. Since they hadn’t seen each other in person yet, Ryan had told Briana to look for the guy with a gray scarf and Briana had told Ryan that she was wearing a red coat (which was actually her friend Caitlin’s coat since Briana didn’t think she needed a coat in the middle of winter). They found each other at the bar and ended up ringing in 2017 together (along with Josh and Caitlin) and getting Ian’s pizza after bar close. Ryan then walked Briana and Caitlin safely to their ride back to Sun Prairie.


Briana and Ryan had their first official date a week later. They went and grabbed dinner at Lucille’s before going to the Kohl Center to watch a Men’s Badger Hockey game and the rest is history. They spent the next 7 years creating countless memories together!


They both enjoy spending as much time as they can up north either at the Klecka/Bogner cabins on Tug Lake or at the Kernen cabin on Lake Alice. They go fishing, tubing, boating, target shooting, golfing and spend time playing card games with family. They’ve attended many country concerts together, have gone to see the Bucks & Packers play and have taken weekend trips to Door County and Chicago. They’ve traveled to St. Thomas with the Klecka family, to Hayward for a winter getaway with the Kernen Family and went to Siesta Key for Briana’s golden birthday.


They lived in a high rise apartment in downtown Madison for three years before they bought their first home together in June 2022 (Thank you, Heather!). They are now living in Monona and love to explore their new neighborhood but they still love not being too far from downtown Madison. They have been enjoying completing house projects and making that house their home. Ryan popped the question at the Capitol on December 18th, 2022 after they had gone to Sunday brunch at Heritage Tavern and explored the Capitol.

In April 2023, Ryan & Briana added a new member to their household… a black lab named Remi! Remi adds joy to their lives each and every day.

Over the years, they’ve been each other’s dates for over 10 family and friend’s weddings and now it’s finally their turn to be the Bride & Groom and they couldn’t be more excited to celebrate with all of you!


Briana & Ryan