We met while Sari was in her Senior year at Luther College and Jared was in his first year of teaching. While Sari was home for Christmas break, we matched on a dating app. After a month of talking and texting, Jared came down to Iowa to visit. Looking back, it wasn't the best exercise of internet stranger danger, but everything worked out and we've been together ever since!

We've navigated graduate school (for both of us), new jobs, moving together twice, and the COVID pandemic.

This photo is within our first year of dating at the wedding of our officiant!

Last year, we heard that the 2024 Solar Eclipse path of totality was going to be crossing paths with Sari's hometown. We started planning a vacation to see the eclipse and travel around Western New York (you should ask Jared about the vegetarian meal we had).

While it was cloudy during the eclipse (as you can see in the photo above), it was amazing to see how quickly it grew cold and dark as the sun was being blocked out by the moon. The once quiet marsh nearby transformed into an orchestra of frogs chirping away. It was then, while the celestial bodies hanging above them had aligned for this moment, that Jared proposed to Sari.