On the evening of December 31, 2015, they were just two strangers at two different parties. Carl's phone illuminated with a message from a girl named Nina: "Hey :) I'm a Rangers fan too"! They got to talking about hockey and the new year, and never seemed to stop. They kept in touch while Nina was on Birthright in Israel and agreed on dinner at Dish 'n' Dat when she got back to the US. Soon after, Carl visited Nina at school where they watched the NHL All-Star game together, Nina attended Carl's high school alumni hockey game, and they shared a pizza in a Target parking lot (romantic, right?). Eventually, Carl and Nina went to a Hartford Wolfpack game together. They were listening to Kyle Kinane stand-up comedy at the Goldroc Diner when Carl finally asked Nina to be his girlfriend. And the rest is history!

Carl knew that he wanted to marry Nina by their third date. Three years later, with the help of Nina's mom Brenda, Carl created a ring using diamonds from Nina's Great Grandmother's and Great Aunt's engagement rings. Carl knew that he couldn't keep a secret from Nina to save his life, so he gave the ring to Brenda for safekeeping. With a plan in mind, the ring traveled to Las Vegas with Nina's family in tow. While visiting The Valley of Fire, right outside of Vegas, Carl nervously posed for a picture with Nina overlooking Rainbow Vista. With Nina's father, Joe, slyly filming the scene, Carl got down on one knee and asked Nina to be his wife. Obviously she said yes (otherwise you wouldn't be reading this)!

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Carl and Nina made the difficult decision to postpone their wedding. It was with the health and safety of their guests in mind that they chose to wait to begin their marriage until it could be celebrated properly. To Carl and Nina, it's important that we are able to hug, dance, and party the night away safely, which was not a realistic expectation for 2020.