To lead off, Kyle and Elizabeth's families have known of each other for quite some time. The link is through the Polka family (Mike, Jacqueline, Molly, Luke, and Grace). Elizabeth's parents are great friends with Mike and Jacqueline, beginning before they even had children. Kyle's mom is Jacqueline's sister. Over the years Dave and Sue (Kozak) ran into Vicky and George (Cernetig) at birthday parties and graduations. Elizabeth remembers hearing of Molly, Luke, and Grace's cousins...but Kyle doesn't quite recall hearing anything about Elizabeth. In 2017, Molly Polka was getting married. She threw a combined bachelor/bachelorette party and told her cousin Kyle that a girl named Elizabeth would be there, and she would love to have him meet her. She told Elizabeth nothing about it. When Kyle came up and started helping Elizabeth with her bags she was confused, but went with it. That weekend Kyle gave Elizabeth a hard time about how much mac and cheese she put on her plate, and gave her a fuzzy soy bean he found in a nearby field. Six weeks later they ran into each other again at Molly's wedding. Kyle matched his tie to Elizabeth's dress, and hasn't stopped since. In 2020, COVID hit and Kyle started working from home. Elizabeth convinced him to work from her house for a couple of weeks, instead of staying in his studio apartment in Chicago. A couple of weeks came and went, and by July he had moved out of his apartment to live with Elizabeth and her dogs (Brady and Annabelle) full time. The end of 2020 was approaching and Elizabeth was dropping one too many hints about the next step. Kyle finally surprised her at 8:30 Christmas morning in front of their Christmas tree (see FAQ section). He asked Elizabeth to marry him and she said "REEEAALLY?". Welcome to our beginning, we are so thrilled to have you here to celebrate with us!