Nick and Kaitlyn first met in the cafeteria at Marist School in the spring of 2012, the end of their seventh grade year. Their first date was in eighth grade where they took a stroll around North Point Mall after Nick had performed Christmas songs by the mall’s food court. Kaitlyn broke up with Nick after only 2 months of dating because he was “too nice and loved me too much” as he had told her “you are the Juliet to my Romeo except we are actually going to get married and spend the rest of our lives together” … Kaitlyn thought that was crazy at 13 years old—but look who was right after all. They remained good friends until she asked Nick to the freshman year Sadie Hawkins dance. Shortly after the dance, they officially became boyfriend and girlfriend again on April 24, 2014. Ten years later, they have been on countless dates, along with visiting 6 countries (across 4 continents) together. They are excited to continue to enjoy life’s adventures and grow old together!

After a day of touring Marrakech on motorcycles and sidecars, Nick, Kaitlyn, the rest of the Van Metre family, and close friends the Tyrrels made their way to dinner, dressed up under the guise that a photographer would be taking photos of everyone. Shortly after arriving at the restaurant, Nick got down on one knee to pop the question, and even though he forgot the speech he had planned, Kaitlyn said yes! (He later gave her the proposal speech that he had prepared)

Nick and I have so many wonderful memories together. One of my favorites comes from our senior year of high school. Nick picked me up for a date and told me to put on a blindfold. On the car ride to our location I was listing what street we were turning onto despite not being able to see — I watched too many crime shows and had prepared myself to learn the curves of the road in case I was ever taken. He drove through a random neighborhood to confuse me but also got himself lost for a minute. When we finally arrived at the park up the street from our high school that we spent many date afternoons in, he let me take off my blindfold and revealed his surprise. Set up on the top of his pickup truck’s bed was a picnic blanket along with daffodils, Mongolian beef and vegetable spring rolls from Chin Chin’s Chinese, Swedish Fish, a Starbucks chai tea latte, a Bahama Mama smoothie from Tropical Smoothie Cafe, and his guitar. He was holding a sign that read “these are a few of your favorite things, but you’re my favorite thing. Prom?”

I obviously said “YES!” and we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying my favorite foods and drinks while he serenaded me with my favorite songs on his acoustic guitar. I still smile from ear to ear when I retell the story. It reminds me how lucky I am to have such a thoughtful and loving man in my life.

Kaitlyn and I have a lot of memories together, and one of my favorites has to do with music. As a musician, there have been many days where some of our time together consisted of me serenading her with my guitar. In 2020 we spent a lot of the early part of quarantine together, including our 6th anniversary. At midnight on our anniversary, I surprised Kaitlyn with the official release of “Just Press Play”, the song I wrote and recorded for her and about her. The lyrics of the song reference a number of our favorite things—certain songs, root beer, hockey—and specific memories from our early years of dating. She had heard me play all of the different evolutions of the song to her over FaceTime and in person for a few years (she still has all the original demos on her phone), but she did not know that part of her anniversary present that year was her being able to open up Apple Music on her phone and listen to “Just Press Play” whenever she wanted. After about the third time of hearing my voice, I got up to change the song, but she pulled me back down onto the couch and told me that she just wanted to listen to her song. So we ended up spending the first two hours (or more) of that anniversary listening to the song together before falling asleep—to the song—on the couch.