Kelly and Dean became close friends freshman year of high school. Dean started to like Kelly before Kelly started liking Dean #friendzone. They became closer over the years and then Dean asked Kelly to the junior cotillion and they started dating shortly thereafter. Kelly and Dean were inseparable their senior year of high school and graduated from Chelmsford High School together in the spring of 2015.

Kelly and Dean started their first year of long distance dating when Dean left for Avon Old Farms and Kelly made her way to Bentley University that fall. Many day trips to Avon, CT and long Grey Hound bus rides to Boston made for a long year, but some great memories.

In the fall of 2016, Dean then started his next adventure at Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI (a little bit closer than CT and day trips were no longer required ;). Dean now a freshman in college and Kelly a sophomore at Bentley, they looked forward to the weekends they got to spend together.

After two years, Dean decided to transfer to Southern New Hampshire University (much closer to home now!) in the fall of 2018, while Kelly was finishing up her last semester at Bentley. At this point, they were spending almost every weekend together, whether that be at school, home or escaping up to Bretton Woods to ski.

Their next big adventure together started in the early summer of 2019. Dean was able to talk Kelly into going to the Cape for the weekend to spend time with their friends, the McGrath family. What he didn't know he was getting himself into was the neighbor's dog just had a litter of puppies, and Kelly fell in love. They didn't leave that weekend with a puppy but they picked one out together and went back the following weekend to pick up their furever baby, Presley.

At this point, Kelly and Dean weren't living together, so Presley lived at home with Kelly. It was a long summer with lots of dogs in the house, and the timeline to move in together was accelerated. Kelly, Dean and Presley all moved into their first apartment in Chelmsford in the fall of 2019. Dean was finishing up school and commuting back and forth to SNHU and Kelly still working at ZOLL when March 2020 hit. Dean was taking classes at home, while working in Construction and Kelly started working from home, so they spent A LOT of time together for the next year and a half+. Their favorite thing to do during this time was to take Presley to Great Brook Farm for lots of walks and fetch :).

Fast forward to July 2022. It was just a regular weekend, Kelly and Dean were heading up to Ogunquit (one of their favorite places) to spend time with family for the weekend. What started as a normal Saturday in Maine, driving to get Congdon's Doughnuts in the morning, followed by a long day at the best beach, soon turned the best day of their lives. Kelly and Dean were walking the Marginal Way to go to dinner in Perkin's Cove, when all of a sudden, Dean led Kelly down a staircase to a small cove, where candles and rose petals covered the beach. Dean got on one knee and asked Kelly to marry him! (he had to tell her to say yes as she was so caught up in the moment) Dean had all their family and closest friends waiting at a restaurant nearby to celebrate our engagement and party the night away.

Now well into their engagement, Kelly and Dean most look forward to weekends in Maine or Bretton Woods, golfing at Mount Pleasant and movie nights with Presley on the couch. They cannot wait till June 1, 2024 to start their next adventure as husband and wife!

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