12/28/2022

It all started out with one simple prompt on Hinge: "What is your ideal Sunday?". "Church, Good Food, and Patriots Football" was Colleen's answer, and the rest was history. We spoke for the first time on Christmas Eve and 4 days later we were going on our first date at Coolidge Corner Clubhouse (the only spot Connor knew in Coolidge Corner) talking about AP US Government the whole time. On the second date, we did Colleen's ideal Sunday, going to Mass, having brunch, and surprisingly watching the Patriots beat the Dolphins 23-21. On our third date (not even 10 days later) at Fenway Park for the Holy Cross-BU Women's Hockey game, Connor was sending a photo (shown below) of the two of us to friends and when Colleen asked jokingly what he was saying they were, Connor (not panicking at all) said hopefully my girlfriend at the end of the night (Colleen told him to ask at the end of the night and when he did she said yes).

3/1/2025

Being avid "How I Met Your Mother" fans, when coming up with an idea for the proposal, there was only one way for Connor to ask: replicate "The Robin" from the show.

To pull off the plan, Connor spent his lunchbreaks walking around the Seaport for months thinking through the proposal and bringing in a team of experts (his coworkers) to consult and help plan the perfect engagement, even taking practice photos the week of with his coworkers to practice staging.

Of course, pulling this off was easier said than done since there was one thing Connor had not accounted for: Colleen's overzealous inquisitiveness. See, Colleen had known Connor had gone ring shopping in January, so it turned into a new game: ask 99 iterations of what is the plan? Despite enhanced interrogation methods made to break the common person, Colleen never knew when the proposal was going to happen and was shocked when she saw a sign with her name as they walked along the wharf of the Seaport. After reading all 16 steps of the playbook play, Colleen found Connor down on one knee and said yes (with Connor relieved both by the yes and also by the fact he never has to lie to her again).