Tom and Carly were in the same friend group despite being a year apart in age. It was homecoming, and the friend group all celebrated accordingly during the football game and before the dance at Carly’s off campus house. One of Carly’s friend’s had a crush on Tom, so he was only on Carly’s radar because of her friend. However, unbeknownst to anyone in the group, Tom had a crush on Carly, and when he boldly decided to dance with her that night, a love triangle of sorts began…

The two remained nothing more than friends until February. Tom was a gentleman, waiting patiently and persistently for Carly to start flirting with him. It was track and field season, but the two started finding time to hang out after meets on the weekends. As their relationship ramped up, so did the COVID-19 virus. The night before everyone was sent home from college to quarantine “for 2 weeks” was the night Tom made it official and asked Carly to be his girlfriend. Her initial response of, “Sure,” illustrated her surprise. So, on March 15, 2020, Tom and Carly started their long distance relationship that would remain long distance for much longer than either of them expected…

Tom moved to Alexandria when COVID began and has been there since. Carly finished her schooling at Concordia - Moorhead, lived in Fargo for a year, and began graduate school for physical therapy at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, ND. Many miles were put on their vehicles in this time, traveling back and forth to see each on weekends and school breaks. They enjoyed traveling together when time allowed, spending time on the lake and outdoors, hanging out with friends and family, renovating Tom’s house that he purchased in June 2022, and rivaling over NFL football teams - Tom for the Vikings and Carly for the Packers.

Aside from it being the opening weekend to regular season NFL football, Carly had nothing on her radar for the weekend. Saturday was like any other fall Saturday - garage sales and errands in the morning followed by house chores in the early afternoon. An electric scooter ride was on our agenda for the beautiful fall afternoon, and Tom didn’t seem suspicious at all. He even decided to bring a speaker on the ride which he kept in his pack. How nice of him to think of bringing music! (This was how he hid the ring box). After enjoying the ride for a few miles, we arrived at a bridge on the bike trail which crossed over the boat channel from Lake Victoria to Lake Geneva. Tom mentioned wanting to recreate a video we made in Grand Forks almost exactly 1 year ago. (This is how he was able to get the moment on video). After getting the video he wanted to recreate, Tom wanted to get closer to the camera for what he said would be a nice photo. In that moment, he took a step back, got down on one knee and pulled out the ring box to reveal the ring and take Carly by complete surprise! We both began to choke up and Tom could hardly get out the question he wanted to ask as we both knew that this was a moment that we had been looking forward to for some time. It was perfect, and the answer was an easy “Yes”. That day had suddenly gotten much more important than garage sales, errands, and a routine scooter ride.

After nearly 5 years of a long distance relationship, we are so excited to start married life together and see what God has planned for our life together. We can’t wait to celebrate our wedding day with all of you!