Back in the summer of 2012, a Boston-based event production company, Rugged Maniac, hired two new interns. Brendan was sick of his brother's paper route and Lauren was ecstatic to move to the big city to start planning events. Both of them had their eyes set on a full-time job, during which time they traveled the United States working side by side, but Brendan and Lauren soon realized they also had eyes for each other (see what I did there). Life comes at you fast and within a few months they were hiding their relationship from their co-workers and became increasingly grateful for the company's lack of an HR department. The secret didn't last long (phew), they finally began introducing each other as girlfriend/boyfriend, and thus the nicknames "Strechen" and "Blauren" were born. It didn't take long for them to decide that two rent payments are worse than one (or because they were in love, either one) and moved into an apartment in Medford, MA together. Brendan built the "nook" and continued to travel with Rugged Maniac, Lauren accepted a job at Harpoon Brewery and the two became known for throwing epic pizza parties with their apartment's brick oven pizza.

After the final Rugged trip of the 2016 season, Brendan decided it was time to make this girl a Maguire. After spending Thanksgiving day with the miraculously tight-lipped Maguire Family, Brendan and Lauren drove to Western Massachusetts to spend the next day with the Hamill's. Lauren was under the impression that the family was taking a more lasseiz-faire approach to Turkey Day this year, and semi-dutifully accepted her role of picking up the catered side dishes. They hopped in the car, and Brendan mentioned he didn't feel good and wanted to go for a walk to get some fresh air. The Hamill's have like 47 cats, so the story checked out and in actuality he probably had developed an ulcer from lying all week long. The kid isn’t exactly James Bond. Somehow, Brendan guided Lauren up to a spot that “he had never been to” without arousing any suspicion even though it had been billed as a scenic overlook and the visibility that day was about clear as clam chowder. Moments later, Brendan got down on one knee on the side of a cliff which normally overlooks Sunderland and asked Lauren to marry him. Spoiler alert, she didn’t say “no.”

Phase two began on the way back down from the mountain and Brendan had one more trick up his sleeve. As the reality of the situation began to sink in, Lauren had a lot of questions about who did and didn’t know. “Did you ask my Dad’s permission?” she inquired. “No! I wanted it to be to be a surprise!” They drove for a few minutes and headed into the restaurant “to pick up” the aforementioned “sides.” Distracted by the new shiny new rock on her finger and the impending family drama on account of lack of parental permission, Lauren walked right past all her friends and family member's cars in the parking lot. Love really is blind. They walked past the host stand, turned right and Lauren just about collapsed when she was greeted by her loved ones. And that, folks, is how Brendan and Lauren went #FromManiacsToMaguires.

We're so excited to continue the celebration on October 7th with all of you!