While working at Farm Fresh, Tyler asked Ericka out to play pool. A couple weeks later, he asked her to be his girlfriend while they were watching Star Wars.

For the rest of her sophomore year at Virginia Tech, they drove the 6 hours to see each other every chance they could.

Ericka's junior year was back to the 6 hours of long distance, grateful for that after the 2 months of being in different states. Tyler started technical school so seeing each other only got more difficult.

Tyler came to Virginia Tech to escort Ericka to her Alpha Chi Sigma Fall Date Dance.

Through it all, they always celebrated when Ericka could come home.

As everyone was asking people to ring dance, Ericka worked with his family to surprise (and maybe embarrass) him. He did say yes and even posed for the picture!

After a mandatory getting ready time, Ericka's roommate took pictures of them heading to the Virginia Tech Ring Dance.

They took so many pictures inside of the dance!

Ericka's favorite picture of the dance was one they didn't even know about until it was posted by Virginia Tech. Neither of us could remember a time we weren't laughing and dancing all through the night and it was so special to have that captured in a candid shot by one of the photographers!

In the same weekend, Tyler escorted Ericka to the Alpha Chi Sigma Wyvern Ball.

Before separating again for Ericka's internship at the University of North Carolina, Tyler and Ericka walked down the aisle in the wedding of his brother, the best man, Ben Lehman to Lindsey Lehman. It was such a beautiful wedding!

Family pictures were just stunning!

During the summer, while she was in Chapel Hill, Ericka and Tyler got to see each other so often with only 3 hours of separation!

Of course, Ericka came home just in time to watch Tyler walk the stage for his degree from ATI!

In Ericka's senior year at Virginia Tech, they finally hiked the Cascade Falls together.

Ericka drove down to North Carolina, to meet Tyler's friends and attend Lee & Jenn's wedding.

Right before finals, Ericka received her graduate school acceptance letters! Ericka and Tyler dreamed of living together and choosing their new home for the next 5 years.

Tyler came to VT to watch Ericka graduate with her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry. It was such a special moment for them both since it was the end of long-distance!

Ericka and Tyler's favorite season has always been summer. In August of 2018, they moved from Virginia to Urbana, Illinois for Ericka to start graduate school at the University of Urbana-Champaign.

About a year after moving, both Tyler and Ericka felt like something was missing and Ericka was on vacation scrolling Petfinder when she fell in love with a scared cockapoo. That was how Tyler found himself driving to Indiana at 5 am on a Sunday to adopt Sadie.

After a month of having Sadie, they learned she was equally attached to them both and to this day if they lay on the couch together, Sadie will army crawl on top in what Ericka dubbed the family cuddle puddle in 2019.

By the Fall of 2019, Ericka and Tyler celebrated their first year of living together with a classic bar crawl.

It was hard early on to spend holidays together as Tyler had to work a lot of them, but for their second Thanksgiving together, they hosted Tyler's family which was a much-needed reunion!

In the first half of 2020, Tyler learned nothing will stop Ericka from celebrating his birthday or Easter. While it was a small celebration with way too much food for 2 people, it helped both of them keep their spirits lifted.

Throughout the pandemic, Ericka, Tyler, and Sadie did a lot of hiking around Illinois.

On July 4th, they celebrated with friends by having an outdoor BBQ where neither Tyler nor Ericka was a grill master, but the pictures and laughs were worth every destroyed burger.

Throughout 2020, Ericka spent every second she could studying until she passed her preliminary exam at the end of October. She was so exhausted by the end of the day; a family cuddle puddle was the only goal.

As a beautiful end of the year, they attended Allyson Bruske's wedding as she started her life as a Herter.

A night dancing together was always the best way to spend time.

To date, Tyler and Ericka have only been on one vacation together and it was an impulsive idea of Tylers. He booked them a weekend skiing at Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. It was Ericka's first-time skiing, and this lovely older couple taught her how to ski while Tyler zoomed past snowboarding.

Early in 2021, Tyler and Ericka faced their biggest challenge since moving in together as Sadie went in for surgery with only a 50% chance. Thankfully surgery was successful and of course they celebrated with a hiking trip.

In 2022, Ericka's twin sister got married and Ericka had no idea Tyler traveled to Chesapeake after the wedding to ask both of Ericka's parents for her hand in marriage.

With limited time available for both of them, Tyler and Ericka always made sure to spend at least one night a week in the summer sitting on the balcony watching the sunset. One of those days, Tyler proposed, and Ericka said yes!!

The happy family!

By the end of summer, Ericka began focusing on finding a job. It was a lot of time apart, but they began planning their life together when they decided to move to Midland, MI where Ericka accepted a job at Dow.

They celebrated their new start by attending their first UIUC football game together with friends.

In a whole celebration tour, they went to Michigan to freeze at the UIUC vs. MI game!

Spending Thanksgiving in Texas was a blessing as spending time with Tyler's family is so special!

One year exactly after the proposal, Ericka defended her thesis and became Dr. Ericka Bruske with Tyler trying not to cry as she talked about her work and how much the support of her family and fiancé meant to her.

Tyler watched Ericka walk the stage and get hooded by her advisor.

By August 2023, Ericka, Tyler, and Sadie moved to Midland which was so emotional leaving all they built in Illinois. To lift spirits, they used Ericka's weekend before work to explore Bay City.

Ericka was sick throughout 2024, but in the wedding planning process, Ericka and Tyler spent the whole hour laughing through their engagement pictures. Finally on their way to the aisle!!