Our paths may have crossed a few times before we formally met, actually. A friend of Joey's from grade school was cousins with Annie's long time best friend, Ellie. They lived down the street from each other so we (assume) we have played a few games of ghost in the graveyard in our day. Fast forward to High School when Joey was the stud sophomore playing on the varsity baseball team. Annie had some friends on the baseball team who formally introduced us in 2011. The following February, they went to a school dance together and by March, Joey asked Annie to be his girlfriend. High School was easy but college shaped our relationship. 5 years of FaceTimes, flights, and spending all our winter and summer breaks together. Long distance ain't easy people but it was definitely worth it. After Joey graduated, we headed down to Texas to finally be together, in the same city.

This summer, we decided to make the drive back to Chicago for a couple weeks to enjoy some time with family and escape the Texas summer heat. While in Downers Grove, Joey started looking at rings. The original plan was to propose in September but our 2 week vacation turned into 2 months and the ring had come in while we were still home. Why wait? We went for a little stroll after work on Friday, July 24th around the park that we actually took high school prom pictures at and Joey popped the question and she said yes! We walked back to her parents house and were surprised by our very best friends to celebrate. We are the luckiest to have been able to share that moment with so many people we love!