Brittany and Colin met in their freshman year of college at Virginia Tech. They started out as “rats”, otherwise known as freshman cadets, in Virginia Tech’s Corps of Cadets program. They were in the same company and had to refer to each other as “Bud Neff” and “Bud De Maria”. Cute, right?

The saying, “strength in numbers”, is very popular among “rat” cadets in order to avoid facing the wrath of cadre alone. As a company, the “rats” compared schedules and timed their walks to and from shared classes. It just so happened that Brittany and Colin were in Poli Sci 1024 together. They walked to class and sat next to each other in the front row. Brittany wishes she could say that they hit it off and talked the whole time, but she couldn’t stop dozing off and Colin had to keep nudging her awake. He was a good bud. It wasn’t until a week later that they decided to sit in the back of the lecture hall. The only reason Brittany stayed awake during that class is because Colin talked to her the whole time. It became their favorite class even though Colin hated the subject. Later on, Colin told Brittany that he found out early in the semester that he didn’t actually have to take the class, but he stayed in it just to be able to spend time with Brittany.

Brittany and Colin started officially dating during the Spring 2018 semester of their freshman year. They went through college growing and learning together through changes in majors, COVID, and even changes in their ROTC branches. In 2021, Brittany graduated and commissioned as a Transportation Officer in the Army, and Colin followed in 2022 also graduating and commissioning as a Transportation Officer in the Army. They both got stationed at Joint Base Lewis McChord in Tacoma, Washington. Through moving across the country, getting their first apartment, and embarking in pet parenthood, they did it together. Colin got down on one knee on October 7, 2023 to make it official.

Brittany and Colin are so grateful to have gone through their journey together and can’t wait to celebrate their next chapter with all of their closest friends and family on October 17th!