We met at a gathering of the Young Adults group for Central Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls in February 2022. Kolby had moved to northwest Wisconsin the prior fall for work after finishing his Master's Degree at UW-Madison. Danie had just moved back home in January after 10 years of experiencing the world, most recently spending 5 years in Maine working at Acadia National Park. We spent the next 12 months getting to know each other during evening hikes, a camping trip, parties, and many shared meals with our friend group.

As our friendship grew there were many unsuccessful attempts by the both of us to gauge the other's romantic interests, including Kolby spending Christmas of 2022 with the Hahn's after being stuck in Wisconsin unable to make it home to Nebraska with terrible winter weather and a broken furnace. Finally, Danie caved in January and decided to let Kolby know she was interested in seeing what it would be like to go on a few dates.

Those dates flourished into a wonderful relationship where after many camping trips, friend's weddings, coffee dates with Syd, several trips to Nebraska, and spending almost all of our free time together we fell deeply in love with each other. Discussions about spending our lives together concluded in our eventual engagement on the eve of the one-year anniversary of our first date.

We are so excited to take this next step in committing to each other with a marriage full of love and rooted in God. We can not wait to celebrate with all of you on our big day this October!

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