It was a particularly cold January night at Ohio State. Like the sidewalks were frozen and your nose hair froze when you went outside kind of cold. Des hadn't wanted to pay for an uber (who has money for an uber in college???) but was annoyingly far from her apartment, especially in 10 degree weather. Her friend overheard someone was waiting for an uber and even better, it was heading to a frat house close to her place! Her friend knew the boy and asked if they could hitch a ride. By the time they got to the frat it was around 2 am and Des desperately had to use the bathroom. Her plan was more or less to roll out of the uber and speed walk to her apartment ASAP. Fate it seemed, had other plans. Her friend rejected the notion of sprinting home when they could just use the frat bathroom (esteemed for their hygiene). Des was incredibly against knocking on the door to this RANDOM HOUSE SHE'D NEVER BEEN IN but her friend insisted the boys who lived there were quite nice and would be sure to let her in. Before Des could stop her, her friend was banging on the door, yelling for the whole street that her friend desperately needed to use their bathroom. Looking back, there have been very few moments in Des's life where she wanted to vanish into nothingness more than she did in that moment. A few seconds later the door opened to reveal a mildly bewildered-looking boy. And that's the story of how Des met Conor.

So we're asking all our dearest friends & family to go halfway across the world for our wedding. I'm sure there are plenty of questions about why Italy so we thought we'd share a fun story about the last time we visited. Apart from the obvious stuff- it's beautiful, historic, the wine is literally cheaper than water...we actually have no idea how the people function when that's an option but we digress, Italy has been particularly special to us since it was the site of our almost engagement. Italy had been on our vacation bucket list for years. We had both visited with friends and family in the past, but never together. It's 2021 and after such a challenging year, Italy felt like a no-brainer vacation choice. Conor had been particularly involved in the planning of this one from the itinerary to the restaurants. I was growing increasingly suspicious but didn't want to jinx anything. One night, we're on the Amalfi coast and Conor had gone all out. The night felt like a dream. He'd bought me a dress from the area and shoes to match. Dinner was at a beautiful Michelin restaurant right on the water with insane views. It was pretty much the best food we'd ever eaten. The night only continued to wow when the waitstaff opened a private balcony for us to dance to a live performance by Andrea Bocelli. I could not believe Conor had planned such an insane evening for what I was increasingly sure was our engagement. And then....nothing. We went home. No proposal just a beautiful evening. I was deeply confused and beginning to question if Conor was ever going to propose because at this point I had no idea how he was supposed to top that. A few weeks later we're back in New York and I'm debating if I should start just planning on proposing to him. Obviously it would be at a Knicks Game but are we really a jumbotron couple? Thank God he beat me to it. On October 2, 2021 he took me on a rowboat in central park, to a secluded enclave he'd scouted out earlier. He'd packed a picnic, complete with Christmas lights so the boat would feel extra special. It was a beautiful, classically New York and very us engagement. When I finally asked what was up with the insane evening in Italy he explained. It was supposed to be our engagement (although he'd had no idea Andrea Bocelli was slotted to be there that night). The ring had been delayed due to the latest variant of Covid and despite multiple assurances that he'd get it ahead of the trip, he'd had to come up with a plan B. When we were thinking of our wedding and the experience we'd like to create for our guests we started with a list of our favorite places. Italy was at the top of both our lists and we are so excited to be sharing our favorite place with the people who mean the most to us on our wedding day.