Though we grew up just a few blocks away from each other, Dylan and I met for the first time in 2013 at Jones College Prep High School. We quickly became best friends as we took the orange line together everyday and spent afternoons at Wentworth Park playing basketball.

We began dating in December 2014 at just 15 years old and have been together ever since.

We attended separate colleges where I (Julia) studied nursing and Dylan studied political science and economics. In June 2021, we packed up and moved to Lexington, Kentucky for our next adventure.

Dylan attended University of Kentucky (J. David Rosenberg College of Law) and I began working as an inpatient oncology nurse at the university hospital. While in Lexington, we adopted a love for bourbon and our golden retriever, Goose.

In August 2023, we took a trip to Arizona to visit with the Gaworski Family for a long weekend. Dylan and I took a day trip up to Sedona where we went on a Jeep tour through the beautiful red rocks.

Later that evening as we watched the sunset before a fancy dinner, Dylan got down on one knee and asked me to marry him (or so I'm told-after nine years of waiting, I was too excited and I blacked out).

The rest of the weekend was spent celebrating with our Gaworski family and then flying home to Chicago and celebrating with our Keefe family.

We are overjoyed to be getting married and can’t wait to grow old together.