In April of 2022, I randomly stumbled on Kristina’s Instagram profile due to us having mutual friends. I saw that my roommate at the time, Trey, was one of those mutual friends so I turned my phone to him and said “Wow, who is that?!”, as I may have been gushing over her just a little bit. Trey’s response was “Honestly man, don’t even waste your time. She’s got a boyfriend.” A little disappointed, I moved on. Little did he know… that was no longer the case.

One day, just a few weeks later, Trey was on FaceTime with our friend Rachel, who is also a close friend of Kristina’s. Rachel heard that I was in the background, so she called me over and said, “Charlie, come here! I’ve got some good news!”. Intrigued, I asked her what was going on. She said that she had someone to set me up with and said her name was “Tina”. I had no idea who this “Tina” was, but Trey quickly explained to me that it was actually Kristina who I was crushing on just a short time ago. We were both shocked to hear she was actually single. Instant butterflies, intertwined with a good amount of nervousness, on my end… but I was so excited!

A few weeks later, we were introduced to each other at Summer Beer Fest at Arrowhead Stadium. When I sat at the same table as her for the first time, I was so nervous, as I knew instantly she was going to be special to me. I don’t know what I did or what I said, but I must’ve done something right because we hit it off instantly. Conversation was made so easily. We had so many laughs, so many similarities, you name it. We have been inseparable ever since that moment. Later that night, we, and our groups of friends all went to The Levee. A couple drinks later, we had our first kiss, and I knew it was the start of something amazing. Little did I know at the time how far it would actually go.

That night, I also learned that for the past year, she had been living in a house about 100 yards away from where I lived. If that’s not meant to be, I’m not sure what is. We scheduled our first date for the following weekend, but we couldn’t wait that long to see each other. So, two days later, we had our first “date”, where we took her dog, Milo, on a walk to the pet store on the plaza and let him pick out a bone for his birthday. Kristina always gushes about how I showed up with a birthday present for Milo that day, obviously trying to win her over from the start. I suppose me sharing love for her dog was the way to her heart. Anyone who knows Kristina knows that she arguably loves animals more than humans, so I did good there!!

Two days after that, we had our first official date, where we stopped at the Iron District. After some food and a couple drinks, we headed to take a painting class at Pinot’s Palette. Her painting skills were 10x better than mine… I’m no artist after all, but it was so much fun. Since we lived so close, we spent nearly every day after that together at each other’s homes learning about each other and letting our relationship grow. After only knowing her for a couple weeks, I asked her to be my girlfriend as we were laying on the couch in my apartment. It may not have been the most romantic scene, but the moment just felt right, and I knew we both wanted to make our relationship official. About a month after, I was the first to say the magic words “I love you” to her. She instantly said it back and it took her a minute to even realize that was the first time we had said it. We had always said “I like you very much” to each other, but you could tell we both badly wanted to say “love” … I guess we always thought it was a little too early. Our love has done nothing but grow and blossom every minute of every day and I couldn’t be happier that I found the love of my life.

In April of last year, Kristina and I bought a home together in Westwood. It is the perfect home for us, and in such a great area. Just a few days before we closed on the home, we brought home our first puppy together - our little Lucy. Definitely a lot of work to train a puppy and start your life in a new home all at the same time, but we worked together as an incredible team and made it all happen. Lucy (and of course her (now our) cat, Theodore) have been the biggest blessings and we are so happy to have a family between us and the pets.

In August of 2023, Kristina and I went to Loose Park on the hottest day the Earth has ever seen, and by the fountain, with my sister-in-law hiding to take pictures, I got down on one knee and asked Kristina to be my wife. She said she had a hunch that it was happening that entire day. She was not shocked at all when I knelt down, but her face was so full of joy and a knowing smile. Slipping that ring on her finger was the happiest I’ve ever felt, and I was so excited that I would be officially sharing the rest of my life with the woman of my dreams.

We now could not be more excited to share our special day and get married in front of all our family and friends. Thank you to everyone who will be helping make this day so special, but no matter what, it’ll be the happiest day of our lives so far.