Starting in the summer of 2019, Rachel and Ilya began their journey at their internship at Reynolds Consumer Products. Ilya's mom wanted her son to work locally rather than accepting an internship in the city of Milwaukee; while Rachel's mom pleaded for her daughter to stay local for one summer and try out Supply Chain.

At the start

of the internship, Ilya had begun a week before Rachel and prepared himself for

the summer ahead by picking an ideal spot in the room where all the interns would

be sitting. A week later, Rachel strolls in. Contrary to typical love stories, it

was not love at first sight between Rachel and Ilya. In fact, it was actually

love at first sight between Ilya and the larger than normal monitor that Rachel

had received. Ilya would then proceed to try and convince Rachel to give up her

monitor and trade for the small 1990s one that Ilya was originally given.

During that

time, Ilya and Rachel began to have more and more conversations where they

began to get to know each other and learn the similarities that they both

shared. They began to truly realize how small the Russian community was as they

learned that they had been bouncing between each other’s lives for almost a

decade. Ilya's younger cousin was one of Rachel's little sisters, Jamie’s',

best friend since the age of 13.

Towards the

final few weeks of their internship together, a few interesting things

happened. First, remember that monitor Rachel had that Ilya was eyeing? Well,

it suddenly stopped working on her laptop so Ilya was finally able to get the

monitor he had been waiting for, for three months (If you know Ilya you know why

this is funny). Second, the two of them had finally begun to develop feelings

for each other that neither of them, stubborn as they both are, would admit.

Finally, Rachel decided to host a little farewell to the internship and the

connections that all of us had created by hosting a little event at her parents’

house. Rachel had given Ilya one simple and arguably clear instruction: Make

sure to invite all the interns to her house at the time of the event. Rachel

would take care of literally everything else. Naturally, Ilya had agreed even

though he had seemingly other plans.

The day of the

event had finally come and Ilya had shown up on time and ready for the event.

The two of them had conversed for about an hour when Rachel finally decided to

ask "Where is everyone?" where Ilya proceeded to reply "I am

sure they are just running late." Spoiler alert, none of them were running

late. After what seemed like a short 20 min, 6 hours had actually passed by of

Ilya and Rachel just spending the time talking and truly getting to know each

other. Neither of them even wondered where everyone else was until later that

night when Ilya got up to get ready to leave. Upon leaving, Ilya decided to

reveal that none of the other interns were running late, he just decided not to

invite any of them in an effort to spend some quality time with Rachel. Cute

right? Nope. Rachel spent the next few days pretty upset until finally she

realized, after much convincing from her family, that Ilya did it as a cute

gesture.

Fast forward 4

years, their relationship grew stronger, Rachels family grew crazier, and the

two of them could not be more in love with each other. In January of 2023, Ilya

decided it was time to make the biggest decision that he would make in his

entire life, and propose to Rachel. Come May of 2023, that question was asked,

and an answer was given with a resounding yes! (Even though he had opened the

ring upside down and was moments away from it falling off the side of a cliff,

not his best moment). Now, with the ring safely on Rachels finger, the two of

them are in the process of planning the happiest day of their life and truly

cannot wait to spend it with the most important people!

R&I

Wedding Day