It all began in the small town of Geneseo, New York... In the fall of 2014, Liz, a college sophomore at SUNY Geneseo, joins the on-campus first response agency (Geneseo First Response, or GFR for short). Mike, already an established GFR member, helped train Liz and her fellow "probies" that semester. We know what you're probably thinking - Liz, a new starry-eyed probie, instantly fell in love at first sight with Mike, the amazingly cool and witty 2nd Assistant Chief, right? Well, despite Mike's best attempts, Liz didn't start falling for his nerdy rock and EMT jokes until over a year later!! If it wasn't for GFR, late night study sessions, and midnight coffee runs to the local 7 Eleven, Liz might never have realized just how amazing (albeit nerdy) Mike really was.

January 22, 2016 - Mike finally asks Liz out!! After Liz tells him to do so, of course, because Mike just "assumed" that it was already official... Typical guy, right?? And the rest is history! Mike abandons Liz in May of 2016 when he graduates from Geneseo and moves to Texas to start his Masters in Geology. He then moves to Ohio in 2017 to continue his studies, right as Liz graduates from Geneseo and moves to Maine for 3 years of PT school! We never claimed to have the best timing... But after almost 4 years of a long distance relationship, Liz finally moved in with Mike in 2020... In the middle of COVID! Again, not the best timing, but that seems to be our "thing." Although, you could say it was a good test, as we found out really quickly that we could, in fact, survive living with each other! Even in Ohio, of all places... Adopting our couch potato of a dog, Cora, certainly helped!

Fast forward to 2023 - with Mike having graduated with his PhD in May, he accepts a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Duluth, MN. Once again, Liz and Cora get dragged along for the ride, just as Liz is becoming an established physical therapist in Ohio (really Mike? You couldn't have picked a different time to graduate and get a job? How inconsiderate!!). Just to further demonstrate our apparent lack of good timing with big life decisions, we had to move out of our apartment in Ohio by June 30th and couldn't move into our new apartment in Duluth until August 1st. Luckily, Liz's parents took pity on us and allowed us to mooch off of them for half of July. Mike's parents were stuck with us for the rest of the month, and then we headed off to Duluth in August!

Oh! Almost forgot.... On July 10, 2023 Liz and Mike had a small courthouse wedding in NY to become legally married so that Liz could mooch off of Mike for health insurance upon moving to Duluth. However, we still wanted to celebrate with all our amazing friends and family, so here we are - getting married, part two!

If you stuck it out until the end, thank you for reading this novel (#GeneseoLoveStory - shout out to Jenna Braunagel for the title!) and we can't wait to celebrate with you all on 10/19/24! <3