Kyle and Kate both attended the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign (UIUC) for their undergrad experiences. Kate, changing majors a couple times and landing on education, and Kyle, majoring in statistics and minoring in math. The highlights of Kate's undergrad include Girls Next Door A Capella and Joe's Brewery. Kyle, a member of the ZBT fraternity and bartender at the Red Lion. However, they did not meet during these experiences. Kate graduated in 2017 but stuck around Champaign because she is a "townie". In the fall of 2017, Kyle and Kate were introduced through one of Kyle's best friend's, Richard Gumirov.

As many of you know, Kate is hilarious and she was able to charm Kyle with her sense of humor through an instagram parody account in which she made memes. They met in person at a Music Festival in Chicago and Kate began teasing Kyle about the attention she was getting from him online. Kyle mostly shrugged and played it cool.

When they bumped into each other again at Joe's Brewery in Champaign, Kate's previous place of employment, Kate was eager to get his attention. With liquid courage she approached Kyle at the bar and asked if she bought two tequila shots would he take one with her. He agreed, the shots were delivered and consumed, and Kate went to pay the bill. However, she realized that while her focus was on how to initiate contact with Kyle she had lost her entire wallet including her debit card, license, and social security card. While Kate wanted to stay and continue spending time with Kyle, the responsible side of her kicked in and she called her mom to pick her up from the bar and take her straight to the police station to make a report and attempt to recover her identity. The bar was not stiffed on the bill as Kyle covered it and before Kate's mom arrived he also obtained Kate's phone number so that if the wallet resurfaced a the bar he could let her know. The wallet was never found but the two began talking every day.

The two quickly began to spend more and more time together. Going to shows at the Canopy Club and making road trips to Chicago. They both loved showing each other new music and binging the sopranos. Kate scored Bulls tickets for the two in December. She had never been to a game before and was honored to experience her first with Kyle "Jordan" Calcagno. The two also planned a trip out west to see one of their favorite artists, Odesza, at the Redrocks Ampitheater, another first for both of them.

Kyle graduated from UIUC in the Spring and headed to the suburbs to begin working. Kate was beginning her Masters program at UIUC in the fall... so it meant the two would be long distance. Yes, three hours can be long distance! A special thank you to Craig, Jen, Julie, Bob, and Suzanne for letting one of the two crash at their house every weekend for the next two years.

The distance, and seeing each other every weekend, didn't deter their commitment to each other, in some ways it made their love grow stronger. They celebrated birthdays, met family members, played with each others dogs (love to Wally, Milo, Rizzo, Max, Molly, Hank, Harley, and Martin), celebrated holidays with each other, explored cooking that didn't involve the microwave, saw even more live music, and all of it felt fun and easy. Kyle ended up moving to the city with his friend Sean, which meant Kate moved in during the COVID19 pandemic when the whole world shut down.

Shout out to Sean for being Kyle's room mate for so many years and allowing Kate to be his third for a year after college. Kate graduated from UIUC with her masters in 2021 and made plans to move to the city with Kyle. Since the move to Chicago, long distance has been only a memory. The two continued adventuring, exploring, seeing live music, spending time with each other's families, and navigating creating a home together. Almost all of these experiences were positive (thank god they have two bathrooms). Some highlights include ARC 2021, visiting India, being a part of so many of their closest friends weddings, visiting Idaho, staying late at Radius and Smartbar, attending their friends' passionate projects turn into successes (shout out House Calls and Flow State), hosting pregames, celebrating birthdays, and giving each other pep talks on Sunday nights when the scaries start to hit.

In Winter of 2022 Kate began the conversation of visiting Italy the following summer. After months of planning, and saving, the two embarked on the trip of a lifetime to Italy in July 2023. They would be in Italy for close to three weeks, and it would be their last trip as singles and first as an engaged couple. While in Ravello, a small town on the Amalfi Coast, Kyle proposed to Kate. Looking back on the memory always bring a smile to their face. Kyle and Kate can't wait to have one of the possibly best days of their lives in June 2025 and hope you will be there to celebrate with them.