Daniel and Kelly met in 6th grade at Palmer Trinity School but got to know each other in 8th grade science class. They were put in a big group project, which Kelly hosted over the weekend at her mom Tina's house. Daniel was dropped off by his mom, Valerie, who met Kelly and Tina for the first time that day. Of course, Daniel soon got distracted by Sunday football playing in the next room while everyone else worked on the science project (which Tina will never forget).

Early in high school, while Kelly was working 7 days a week over the summer at her grandparents' fruit stand in New Jersey, Kelly decided to give Daniel a call out of the blue (mostly out of boredom, but she thought he was cute). For the rest of the summer, Daniel and Kelly spoke over FaceTime almost every day and became close friends.

In 2013 during their sophomore year of high school, Daniel asked Kelly to the Homecoming dance after showing up to her dad John's house with roses and chocolate in hand. This made quite the impression on John. They took a stretch limo with friends and had a blast.

Their friendship continued over the next year or so despite having only one class together (art class, where Daniel jokingly tried to cut Kelly's very long hair with some safety scissors). But, at some point, it was becoming clear that Daniel had a pretty big crush on Kelly... maybe him showing up to school on Valentine's Day with a big heart-shaped tin of chocolates and a bracelet for Kelly gave it away.

During their junior year at Palmer in 2014, Daniel asked Kelly to their first prom (which was the night before Kelly had to take the ACT college admission test). They had a great evening on the dance floor, and Daniel made sure that Kelly got home to rest up before the ACT test. Soon after, they became an official couple.

Just before prom, Daniel met the rest of Kelly's extended family at one of her grandparents', Dom and Pop's, annual bonfires.

Daniel and Kelly dated for the rest of high school and remained in touch during college since Daniel was in Boston at Bentley University and Kelly was in Gainesville at the University of Florida. Here and there, they had the opportunity to visit each other between 2015 and 2019. The pictures below from their freshman year show Daniel visiting Kelly at UF and Kelly visiting Daniel in Boston at her first Red Sox game.

Daniel and Kelly each got into law school at the University of Miami during their senior year of college, and moved home after graduating in 2019.

After moving home, Daniel and Kelly decided to start their new lives together as law students at Miami Law. They lived together in Brickell for 3 years, including during the pandemic, which brought them closer together and solidified their compatibility as adults in the real-world.

After both graduating with honors from law school in 2022, Kelly and Daniel took the Florida Bar exam together before embarking on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Australia and Bali (after learning about credit card point travel-hacking during the pandemic). Daniel had initially dreamt about proposing to Kelly on their big trip, but the timing didn't work out since they ultimately wanted to settle into their new careers before an engagement.

About 1 year after starting their full-time jobs as attorneys, Daniel put together a beautiful (and intricately devised) plan to propose to Kelly at Patch of Heaven Sanctuary on September 2, 2023, the execution of which was helped tremendously by his mom Valerie, brother Jordan, sister-in-law Sara, best friend Devin, and Kelly's sister, Katie.

After more than a decade of friendship and love, Kelly and Daniel are so excited to (finally) be getting married!