Our love story starts five hours southwest of Rachel’s hometown and two hours west of Jake’s—at the University of Missouri, back in 2014. It’s a classic love story. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl go to a party. Boy asks girl out on a date—girl says no. Boy asks girl out again a few weeks later—girl says no… Okay, maybe not a classic, but it’s ours and we love it. Rachel politely told Jake “no thank you” after his first two attempts of asking her out, but persistence paid off. The following semester Rachel turned the tables and asked Jake out on a date. We got ice cream, which melted all over Rachel within 5 minutes, walked through a park and capped the night off by sneaking into the Mizzou football practice facility because Jake thought it would be romantic (nothing says romance like turf and gym equipment, right?). Six years worth of dates later, we’ve made it through 2.5 years of long distance, laid our roots in Chicago and this past September Jake asked Rachel to marry him in a park next to Lake Michigan. We could not be more elated to have the people we love most—all in one room—to celebrate our marriage on August 21st 2021!