Our love story starts the way all classic love stories do: in the basement of a fraternity house on a Wednesday night. It was March 26, 2014, and John was a Freshman at Penn State and a lowly Chi Phi pledge tending bar at a, not kidding, Victoria's Secret sponsored party. Devon, then a Sophomore at Penn State, saw the event on Facebook, of all places, and decided she and her friends would check it out.

When she got there, she went straight to the basement and found John behind the bar, and the red sport coat he was wearing caught her eye. They hit it off immediately. Over the years, a number of people have claimed they deserve credit for John and Devon meeting: the person who had the connection for us to host the party, the pledge master who stationed John at the bar, even groomsman Luke Merski, who was the owner of that red sport coat John was wearing that night. John likes to think it was his dashing good looks and irreverent charm that sealed the deal with Devon, but admits he had a little bit of an assist from all of those claiming credit.

Things blossomed from there! After the semester, Devon met up with John in New York City for their first date outside of State College. Then when John visited Devon in June, they decided to make their relationship official.

On that June day, they planned to go to the Philadelphia Zoo. But like the spur-of-the-moment 19 & 20-year-olds they were, they didn't check to see if the zoo was open. It was not. But John couldn't wait any longer, and sitting there in his 2007 Toyota Camry in the parking garage of the closed Zoo, John finally asked Devon to officially be his girlfriend. She said yes, and the rest, as they say, is history.

John and Devon graduated from Penn State in May of 2017, and stayed together but decided to both follow their careers. For John, that included stops in Wilmington, NC, York, PA, and Lancaster, PA. All the while Devon worked in Manhattan and later in Philadelphia.

After 3-and-a-half years of long-distance, John and Devon moved together to Raleigh, NC in February of 2021.

A few months later, on September 18, 2021, John dropped to one knee and asked Devon to spend forever with him at a place that holds a special place in both of their hearts: the Beaver Stadium tailgating lots. She said yes - well, actually she didn't at first. She just nodded her head and started crying. The actual "yes" came a minute later. It was a perfect day surrounded by family and friends, and, importantly, was capped off by a 28-20 Penn State win over Auburn. We Are!

Right as they started to plan this wedding a few months later, John and Devon decided to look into getting a puppy. They had known for years that they wanted a Samoyed eventually, and expected the search to take a few years. It ended up barely taking a few weeks, and in March 2022, they took home their fluffy little girl, Nittany.

Devon and John are so excited to finally be tying the knot almost 10 years after they first started dating. They can't wait to say "I do" and celebrate with all of the people that they hold dear.

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