Madison and Conner met in 2020 while they were both in college in Springfield, MA. For their first date, they went to an Italian restaurant, Red Rose, where they spent 3 hours talking and laughing. Only when the restaurant closed did their date finally come to an end. When Madison dropped Conner off at his house off campus, he was too nervous to kiss her for the first time, so they said their goodbyes. It was not until the second date and another night of talking for hours that they had their first kiss.

After talking for weeks, the two of them became almost inseparable. In February 2021, Conner invited Madison to come to New York and meet his family and he was finally able to come up to Maine for the first time in May 2021, after the school year ended. It was not until they had both met each other’s family and fully started to know each other that Conner finally said, “I love you” and Madison said it back. Both had been thinking about it long before it was finally said.

After both being able to be together full time during the school year, long distance was difficult over the summer. They were able to be together again when school started again in the fall for Conner and when Madison started her full-time clinical rotation in Connecticut. However, after 10-weeks, Madison had to move to her second clinical rotation back in Maine. This pattern continued with only being able to see each other occasionally due to distance until March 2022. At this point, Madison was done with clinicals and would be graduating soon, and Conner had already graduated and was looking for full time jobs. After talking about the future, they decided that they were going to move to Maine after graduation.

Conner got a job at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine as an industrial engineer right after college, and moved up to Maine full time in May 2022. Madison was able to get a job as a Physical Therapist in Falmouth, Maine. While looking for an apartment, they both lived with Madison’s parents. As her mother would say, “What better way to get to know your daughter’s boyfriend than have him live with you for 4 months?”. And it really was the best way. After living together, everyone got to know each other and became family.

In September 2022, Conner and Madison not only moved into their own apartment in Brunswick, Maine, but they adopted two cats a few days after moving in, Pepper and Olive. Pepper was a year-old mother cat who had recently had a litter of five kittens, one of which was Olive. Conner quickly became a dotting cat dad, and as everyone settled into their new home they became one big happy family.

Fast forward to a year of living together as a family, on the weekend of their third anniversary, Conner surprised Madison. She knew that Conner’s brother, Finbar, was coming up for the weekend before he had to go back to Guam, but that was not the only thing that was happening that weekend. After getting home Friday night, Conner surprised Madison with flowers, take out from their favorite restaurant, and a nice bottle of wine to celebrate their anniversary before Finbar was supposed to get there the next day.

Conner asked Madison to get some wine glasses out of the cabinet for dinner, and she opened the cabinet, took the glasses, and then places them on the counter. Conner just looked at her and said, “Why don’t you look again?”. Confused, Madison went and opened the cabinet door again, and then looked at the shelf below the wine glasses. There, on the plates, was an open ring box with the most gorgeous sapphire engagement ring inside. Madison took the box out and turned to Conner, unable to say anything. “Will you marry me?”, Conner asked. “Yes!” Madison exclaimed, as threw her arms around Conner. Little did she know, there was also more than just the ring.

Conner planned an engagement dinner with his entire family from New York, including Denise, Pat, Devin, Amanda, and Finbar, and Madison’s entire family, including Glen, Marci, and her brother Nathan who lives in Boston, Massachusetts. He also planned for Madison, Amanda, Marci and Denise to get their nails done so she could show off her ring.

And now they are planning their dream wedding!