Sean and I met in the winter of 2015. We both attended the same party and I took a selfie with him that night. We never spoke at the party and I didn't even catch his name.

The next morning I showed several friends the picture we took in attempt to figure out who he was. Once I knew his name I looked him up on Facebook and scrolled through his photos. Embarrassingly, I accidentally sent him a friend request. This would've been no big deal had we attended a larger college. For those of you who don't know, Carthage is veryyyyy small. Small enough that two months after the accidental friend request, we ended up in one of the same classes with 18 other students.

The class was Women in the Visual and Literary Arts. This was not a class that either of us were excited to take, but it gave us double the credit towards graduation. Regardless, I showed up to class early to get a seat towards the back hoping to blend in throughout the semester. Sean and Graham (his best man) were the last to walk in the class. Sean took one of the last two seats left which happened to be the seat directly behind me. Immediately he began asking me questions, attempting to make me laugh (and succeeding), and distracting me from everything that the professor talked about that day. From that day on, we both knew we had a connection.

Shortly after, we began hanging out on the weekends with friends and getting to know each other better. After many attempts at asking me to be his girlfriend, we made it official on March 18th, 2015.

We didn't have much time in college together since Sean was graduating in May of that same year, but we kept our relationship going with me attending Carthage again in the fall for my senior year and Sean living back home in New Lenox, IL starting his first job. After my graduation we continued to see each other on weekends throughout my first year teaching.

After spending a year and a half driving from New Lenox, to Mundelein, to Kenosha for short visits, we found a townhouse and moved in together in Gurnee, IL in August of 2017. Since then we have been making our house a home and have been loving sharing our lives together.

On July 18th, 2020 Sean and I had plans to go to the beach after his baseball practice. He woke up early, got dressed for baseball, and left the house for "practice". Little did I know, Sean didn't have baseball practice. Instead, he spent those hours picking up the ring, visiting my parents, and heading to the baseball field to make himself appear as though he just came home from practice. When he got home we packed our bags for the beach and headed to Zion. Once we arrived, Sean took me on a walk to explore the beach since he had never been there. Really, this was a walk to pass time while his mom and sister Lauren found a hiding spot to record the upcoming proposal I had no idea was happening. After finding the right spot, Sean got down on one knee and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. It was the easiest "yes" I've ever said!

Sean and I love North Carolina and plan to move there in the future. We've always wanted a destination wedding and after visiting Wrightsville Beach, NC we knew it was the perfect spot!

We are both so thankful for the relationship we have and the role that all of you have played in our lives. We can't wait to celebrate our marriage with you this summer!