For those of you that don't know our story or just want to hear it again cause I mean lets be honest, who doesn't love a cute love story!? Riley and I both went to York Central School our whole lives. He played soccer then eventually football, and wrestled throughout high school and college. I danced, played soccer and basketball. Although our school was small, everyone knowing everyone and a tight knit community, Riley and I never spoke until after high school when I began working at the local Hardware store down the road from his family farm at the end of senior year. Between Riley working on the farm and his truck always breaking down and needing parts, it wasn't long before we started to make a connection during his frequent visits. Riley eventually asked if I wanted to go to a movie (Fast and Furious) with Joey Semmel and himself. I, having a crush on this handsome guy, said "sure why not", ya know gotta play it cool. Well... he ended up falling asleep during the movie and at the end he said, "oh yeah, I've already seen it like three times and I've been up since 4 am."...oh.. okay. Now he'll tell you that he didn't think I liked him. Boy was he wrong, as always (lol jk jk). Anyways, our first official date where he didn't fall asleep was at the drive in at the charcoal corral where I embarrassed him with my pro mini golf skills, we enjoyed ice cream cause how could you not? and of course we watched a couple movies and talked a lot. I would say we shared some smooches but at that point we were both so nervous I pretty much just rambled the whole time! After a summer of a blossomed infatuation, Riley went back to dorm at Alfred State and I commuted to Monroe Community College. I would visit when I could and he would come home when I couldn't. Our relationship grew stronger and after Riley graduated and a year into our relationship, we made a big leap by not only moving in together but moving to a new city.

Although Buffalo isn't far from home, it was our own adventure full of amazing moments, growth and new friendships. Riley started his career at Anderson Equipment while I began the rough road of nursing school. Poor Riley had to deal with my ups and downs, stress and crying during this time, I mean I'll be completely honest in saying that I was not always easy to be around at this period. All the hard work and emotional and mental hardships paid off for both of us and without Riley and his support, I never would have made it but here I am two nursing degrees later and an amazing career with endless opportunities, all thanks to his support and love. We started looking into buying a house in the areas surrounding Buffalo but decided that we wanted to be closer to family so we made a plan that we would eventually move back. As most of you know, Riley is a little social butterfly and loves to make new friends which made it easy to live in a new city. They definitely made it feel like our home away from home and made us sad to move back knowing we wouldn't see them as often but we also have amazing friends at home.

After not killing each other with our lack of cooking skills (luckily Buffalo is full of food options), Riley FINALLY asked me to marry him on September 12th, 2020. With the help of friends, Riley asked me to marry him in the middle of a pumpkin patch owned by a friend's family (the Balcerzak's) who invited us over to pick and carve pumpkins every year and have graciously welcomed us and made us feel like family since we lived in Buffalo. The last few years they invited more of the guys from work as they got closer so when all his work buddies and their girlfriends/families were there I thought nothing of it! We road the tractor over to the field and started picking pumpkins as usual. Rachel called me over to "help with a heavy pumpkin" but little did I know that this moment was leading to the happiest of my life. I walked over and she pointed to this big pumpkin and as I looked, I noticed something on the stem.. a big plastic ring. That's when I realized that this was IT. I turned around and there Riley was, knee on the ground and the first thing I could think of was .. omg this can't be real.. and I even remember saying "are you joking?".. not a joke guys. So for the next twenty minutes or so I cried.. a lot. We took some pictures, I of course was happy to show off my beautiful new bling to all that asked to see. We finished loading up the hay wagon and headed back to the farm where the Balcerzak family had everything decorated, cupcakes and Champagne ready for our celebration. We called family to share our news and spent the night playing yard games and relaxing next to a fire with friends and we couldn't have asked for a more amazing day.

After some amazing years in Buffalo, we have now moved back to our home town area to be closer to friends and family. We have had the once in a lifetime opportunity to buy land off of Riley's grandparents which is so huge with this crazy housing market. So now that we are getting hitched, we decided that what better way to do it than at the farm Riley grew up on and with a huge party with all of our family and friends! Here's to our future together and we can't wait to celebrate our big day with all of you!