As many of you know (or maybe you don't) Jake and I went to grade school together.

While neither of us remember the actual first time we met, Joe and I started going to school at Saint Joseph's in West Saint Paul in the 3rd grade; so my best guess is that we met sometime that year. That same year, Jake's family lived in Mendota Heights - just about 2 miles away on Havenview Court, which meant we were all on the same bus.

Thanks to being on the same bus, and in the same class, Jake quickly became friends with my twin brother, Joe. We even have some pretty sweet pictures of the two of them attending each-other's birthday parties!

Flash forward to the 6th grade, where Jake and Allie were in the same class (Mr. Malay's, to be exact). The both of us bonded over how strange and...squirly...Mr. Malay was. Jake sat directly across from me for that entire year, which is where I first experienced how goofy and fun-loving he is. I would be lying if I said I didn't have a crush on him then, but I never said anything to Jake about it at the time.

Flash forward to the 1st ever Red Bull Crashed Ice, which I was unable to attend the final round because I was busy working at the Crowne Plaza, but Jake was in attendance to support his former classmate who was one of the competitors (or maybe he just wanted to see him wipeout). Fortunately for me, the wonderful people at Red Bull were so ecstatic with how well the event went that they gave the hotel staff VIP tickets to the final after party at the Shanty, at O'Gara's. It was at this party that we were re-united for the first time since grade school. Jake came up to me and my brother (he also worked at the hotel) and said hello. Jake and I chatted again later on in the night, which was when he asked for my number and if I would have dinner with him sometime.

Our first date was about a week later, and for the next year we were together as often as we could be. The rest of the story of our relationship could take awhile to tell, but that first year of Jake + Allie solidified that he would forever be a part of me. I am beyond excited to become Mrs. Sandkamp, and to continue exploring and adventuring through life with Jake by my side.

I'll be the first to admit that Allie has a significantly better memory than myself. Due to my main focus in life being recess football until about the sixth grade, my first memory of Allie is, "Oh yeah, the guy I play football with at recess has a twin. That's pretty cool." It wasn't until sixth grade when we got seated in alphabetical order did I start to see the other Ryan twin as something other than Joe's sister. Alex Schneider and I were best friends at the time and due to our most likely rowdy behavior when we were together, we were quickly separated which left Allie as my only source for conversation. I remember thinking she was cute and quiet, but definitely didn't share my enthusiasm for Randy Moss and Daunte Caulpepper.

Fast forward to the winter of 2011 when i had just returned from boot camp and was preparing to make the transition from being woken up by screaming drill sergeants at 4AM to normal college life. My friends and I all got together at Crashed Ice to cheer for one of my college buddies who was competing in the event. Our group met up after the event and found out that O'Gara's was hosting a party for all the athletes later that night, to which we somehow managed to get invites for. Being that it was one of the first times I had gone out in St. Paul since I had gotten back from my military training, I was looking forward to O'Gara's as it always seems to turn into a grade school/high school/St.Paul/Mendota Heights reunion for our age group. When we arrived, I immediately noticed Joe but was more intrigued by the pretty girl with long brown hair standing next to him (sorry Joe). It took a few minutes for me to remember that Joe had a twin and I actually knew that pretty girl with long brown hair. After several vodka Redbulls, I gathered up the courage to go talk to Allie (it had been awhile since I had talked to a girl after six months in boot camp), and had a hell ya moment when I picked up through conversation that she was single. I was suave enough to get her phone number, and I don't think I made it twelve hours before asking her out for dinner. We immediately connected and spent every minute we could together until I had to move to Goodland, KS (on the border of Colorado and Kansas). She's a saint for putting up with my many work related moves over the years (Goodland, KS - Omaha, NE - Chicago, IL - New York, NY), and I can't express in words how happy I am that we're finally living in the same area code again.

So. Full disclosure. I was fairly certain that this year would be the year that Jake proposed.

That being said, I had ZERO clue that he was planning to pop the question on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend.

Being the clever man that he is, early in the week Jake had asked me what our plans were for the weekend; following it up by saying his co-workers + their girlfriends wanted to get together Saturday night. I'm sure that I responded with a cheeky comment...but ultimately said that it sounded like a fun time.

As the week progressed, NYC basically became a sweatbox. It was 90+ degrees, humid, and all sun for the rest of the week. Now, I know that sounds marvellous, but let me tell you. Living in a 3rd floor walkup, with two skylights, and NO A/C....it was downright miserable.

So, Saturday morning rolls around and we are just dying from the heat. Jake then has a brilliant plan - since we're going out in the city, we should just get a hotel room. Of course, I was all for it.

We had decided that we were going to meet his friends at the Campbell Apartments, which is a really beautiful + fancy bar inside of Grand Central Station. Thanks to our hotel being located just up the street, we arrived to Grand Central a bit earlier than originally planned. Which worked out perfectly, because that meant we could go into the main concourse to take a photo (think iconic Grand Central, the clock in the center, ornately painted ceiling).

When we got to the concourse, Jake gave his phone to a group of tourists & told them his plan. He came back to me, posed for a photo, then pulled out the ring, got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him.

There is nothing that could have made that moment more perfect. In fact, the tourist who Jake asked to take the photos did an AMAZING job. Each of the images we have from the proposal were taken as Live Photos (gotta love Apple!) so we now have live mementos of the day we got engaged.

One of the many things I have learned about Allie over the years is that she knows what I'm going to do before I even know what I'm going to do. This presented a problem for me when I decided that I was ready to buy a ring and propose. Not only did I have to come up with a way to disguise my trip back to Minnesota to buy a ring, but I also had to come up with a proposal that would surprise her. I lucked out with my brother graduating from St. John's University in May of 2016 giving me a reason to go back to the Twin Cities. Thankfully my best friend's family owns a jewelry store, and my mom and sister came with with to pick out the ring, as I left Minnesota I was confident that I had the ring to score me a "Yes", (I also did some research on her Pinterest boards).

Picking out the ring and getting it back went extremely smooth and Allie didn't suspect a thing. Now came the hard part. Planning a proposal that would both be both memorable and catch her off guard... We were planning to travel back for Minnesota for the Fourth of July, and I originally planned to propose to her at her parent's cabin. As I was getting my plan in place, I notified Allie's parents that I was thinking the cabin, let her sister and brother know, and even spilled my plan to a few of my friends. I was feeling confident that I had a great plan that would totally catch her off guard until one day this Spring when we were walking to the subway and out of the blue Allie proclaimed with an incredible level of confidence, "You're going to propose at the cabin, aren't you?" Looking back, I shouldn't have been surprised she figured that out, but it sent me into a panic. After talking with my godfather who thankfully lives a few blocks from us, we came to the conclusion that it had to be done in a place that was both picturesque (Allie had subtly told me this moment had to be captured on camera) as well as a permanent fixture in NYC. Grand Central Station immediately came to mind as it was one of the first places I brought Allie when she came to visit me for Thanksgiving in 2015. I was able to lure her there with the assumption that we were going to a swanky bar in Grand Central to meet up with a few of my buddies from work. When we arrived, I immediately become 100x more nervous than I had expected. For some reason, I never thought that there might be a few thousand people in Grand Central who would witness this monumental day in our lives. Ensuring we had pictures of the moment was my top priority, and luckily I found a group of southern women who were ecstatic to capture the moment for us. I got down on one knee, she said yes, and we went to one of my favorite steakhouses in NYC. A perfect end to a perfect evening.