Our story started in 2020 at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana! Sydnee had just started her sophomore year and Charlie his junior year. Sydnee was still living on campus, while Charlie was living in his fraternity house. Thanks to a mutual friend and (ironically) COVID-19, fate brought us together to meet and begin what would become a lifelong journey.

After being introduced at a fraternity party, Charlie asked Sydnee on a first date. If you ask Charlie, he’ll tell you that he knew Sydnee was the one when she drank the majority of the 1.5L bottle of BareFoot Pinot Grigio he brought. If you ask Sydnee, this is an exaggeration and the bottle was pretty evenly split, but she’s glad he remembers the first moment he knew she was the one. Regardless, it was clear after the first date that this was something both Sydnee and Charlie wanted to pursue.

We continued to hang out at fraternity parties, sorority date parties, and dates that semester, and made our relationship official in November 2020. We got to experience and enjoy college in New Orleans together for the next two years, making some of our greatest memories with our closest friends by our side. We joke that had it not been for Sydnee contracting COVID that fall, we would not have met nearly as soon as we did.

Being a year ahead of Sydnee in school, Charlie graduated in May 2022 and moved back to Chicago for work. Though the idea long distance was scary and held many unknowns, we knew we had something special and began our almost year-long journey a thousand miles apart. Sydnee graduated in December 2022 and began PA school in Morgantown, West Virginia in January 2023, and they continued strengthening their long distance relationship with visiting each other every month.

In April of 2023, Charlie got a job and moved in with Sydnee in Morgantown. Living together allowed us to further build our relationship, commit to never doing long distance again, and slowly make plans for our future life together.

In March of 2024, Charlie got down on one knee in Northern Ireland at the Giant’s Causeway and asked Sydnee to marry him! Without hesitation, Sydnee said yes, and they spent the rest of the week celebrating all over Northern Ireland with friends and family. We are so excited to spend our special day with you all!