First Came Love. Then Came Our Baby. Now We Party!

We met like many couples do nowadays... on the internet. Sean struck up a conversation with Katie on the app about their shared love of music and concerts and the conversation flowed effortlessly. We decided to take the conversation off the app and quickly decided to meet for our first date. Sean, being the gentleman that he is, picked a brewery close to Katie's work and home for them to meet for the very first time. On February 11, a very nervous Katie and Sean met for the first time at the corner of the bar inside Wolfden Brewery. We bonded over our love of Hazy IPAs, good music, and exploring different places. Time flew by and we decided that we would continue to see each other. We went on 1-2 dates per week for many weeks until the fateful day when the world shut down due to the Pandemic. Amidst the chaos that was Covid, we continued to explore our relationship with phone calls, texts and video chats (via Facebook because Sean just could not join the iPhone club ;)) and once the weather started to get nicer, we saw each other again in May for the first time since St. Patrick's Day weekend in Chicago. It was that weekend when we decided to make it official and the rest is history. We started traveling, going to many weddings together, and just exploring life as a couple the best we could with all the restrictions placed upon us. As Rihanna said so eloquently, "we found love in a hopeless place". We wouldn't change a thing.

After the pandemic and visiting each other's places so often, we decided to get our own place in the city. We had the best time living together in Ukrainian Village, exploring our new neighborhood and our great city together. When we were just deciding on whether or not we were going to renew our lease (after an awesome vacation to New Orleans for Jazz Fest), we found out that we were going to be parents! After some (ok, lots) of shock and excitement, we told our families and decided it was time to go house hunting in the burbs. We found our perfect home in Downers Grove and moved in there in August. We would be engaged a couple weeks later <3. In December, our family of 2 became a family of 3 as we welcomed Owen Michael on December 23, 2023 at 1:53 am. Our lives were changed forever in the best way and we had the best Christmas present we could have ever asked for. After we navigated our new life with a newborn, it was time to get started wedding planning. We can't wait to celebrate with you all!

Katie had been suspecting an engagement might be coming after getting some questions about her ring size over the summer. We moved into our house and were getting settled in, going on different errands, unpacking and organizing, when Sean suggested they go out for a nice dinner somewhere we hadn't been yet. Katie never turns down a nice dinner out, so she immediately started trying to find a reservation for that night. She found one at Cadence Kitchen in Downtown Downers Grove and got ready for a nice evening out. In the back of her mind, she thought that it might happen that night but after they sat down and ordered, she didn't think it was going to happen. She got up to go to the bathroom and when she came back, Sean was not at the table. He was looking at a concert poster on the wall and was excited that he had been to that concert. Katie thought nothing of it and sat down. Sean came back to the table, but instead of sitting down, got down on one knee and asked Katie to marry him. Katie, of course, said yes and in the midst of all the excitement, the waitress noticed what happened and brought champagne to celebrate.