Our enchanting, delightful, and colorful love story began between our Sophomore and Junior years at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. During the first days of July, on an empty-for-the-summer campus, the two met while Lena was visiting her college friends, and Alex was taking additional courses.

We were inseparable, talking, texting, FaceTiming for days and days. Lena had gone back home to Long Island, and didn’t plan to return until the fall semester. Just a couple of weeks after Lena had left D.C., and realizing he couldn’t wait any longer, Alex arranged our first date in Manhattan. Under the bright stars of New York, we first locked eyes and the rest is history. We ended up in Central Park (for the first time) for our first kiss after sharing a delicious Asian meal at Tao.

We couldn’t stand being apart (still can’t) and a couple of weeks after parting ways, Alex came to visit Lena in her hometown of Huntington, New York. Lena showed him where she grew up and somehow introduced him to pretty much all of her family in the process. Wanting to make things official, he wrote and read her a special poem at sunset on her favorite beach, asking her to be his girlfriend, to which she of course said, “YES” (for the first time). We travelled to Philadelphia, New York, D.C., and Arkansas that summer, even though we weren’t together very long. It was a whirlwind romance from the start.

As summer came to a close, we found ourselves back at GWU for our junior year in business school. We ended up taking many of our classes together and spending most of our time outside class together. We had lots of fun meeting new friends and exploring the city together. By May of 2019 we were moving into our first apartment in the West End neighborhood of D.C. Over this time we shared so many memories, visits with family and friends, and new adventures (including becoming a Doggie parent!), but just as we were about to graduate from our Senior year at GWU, the world came to a halt.

In February of 2020, we both had COVID and suffered horribly, at the time nobody knew what was wrong with us. A few weeks later, the world came to a halt and the “lockdown” began. Our graduation was cancelled and everything was turned upside down. We spent months and months in a small apartment together and finally graduated from GWU on a Zoom call. A few months later, we got our first full-time positions and moved to Bethesda, Maryland to be closer to Alex’s job. We endured the end of the pandemic and finally walked for our graduation on the National Mall in October 2022!

We moved to Little Rock at the beginning of 2023 when Alex got a new job opportunity at Merrill Lynch! During this time, we inherited a new puppy, Max, and spent a lot of our time going on adventures with him. Then, on Lena’s 25th birthday Alex surprised her with lots of presents and treats. But the main gift was her engagement ring. Of course, Lena said, “YES!”.

After spending just a year in the apartment, we bought our first house! Which we can’t wait to welcome all of our friends and family to. We are so excited to celebrate this wonderful and momentous occasion with everyone. We both have been looking forward to this for so long. While it took Lena some time to get there, Alex has been waiting to marry her since their first date.