Brandon and Joseph met in the most romantic of places in Chicago - Roscoe's Bar. On Sunday, October 11, 2009 Joseph was out with friends celebrating his first three day weekend in his first year of teaching and Brandon was out celebrating his completion of the Chicago Marathon earlier that morning. The groups of friends hit it off and closed down the late night bar, The Closet, together later that evening. All in all, it was an incredibly classy day.

Then, after a botched first date (turns out, when Joseph is nervous, he doesn't talk and when Brandon is nervous, all he does is talk), they decided to give it one more shot with a second date at Wakamono. The second time was the charm. Even though Brandon was annoyed that Joseph couldn't eat any of the food he wanted to order (no salmon + no shrimp = no good sushi according to Brandon), they were able to move past each other's nervous tendencies and had a great time.

The next five years brought adventures to Texas, California, Panama, Mexico, and India and, perhaps their biggest adventure until marriage, the adoption of their beagle, Quincy.

4 years later to the weekend after they met, Brandon and Joseph ran the Chicago Marathon together. Well, sort of together. Joseph left Brandon at mile 12, but we don't have to talk about that. They reunited with each other and their family and friends at the finishers' area and began to walk home. On the way home through Grant Park, Brandon took Joseph on a separate route across one of the park bridges. He slowly and ungracefully (he had just completed 26 miles!) got down on one knee and proposed. After Joseph said yes, everyone headed back to the apartment to celebrate the engagement and the marathon with a glass of champagne and a nap!

Columbus Day Weekend will always be an important time for us. It is the weekend we met, the weekend we got engaged, and will be the weekend we get married. Thank you for sharing the weekend with us and making it even more special.