It all started with an iPhone holder...confused? I'll explain. During Ryan's sophomore year, he went to Villanova's activities fair, where all the school's clubs recruited new members. The Campus Activities Team (CAT) was giving out free phone holders to anyone who signed up for the email distribution list, so naturally he signed up. Later that year, we both joined the board of CAT. Neither of us actually remembers meeting for the first time, but the following year (Ryan's junior year, my sophomore year) we spent a lot of time together helping out with events that CAT was running. It took about 6 months of perseverance from Ryan before I agreed to make the relationship official and I famously told him to "bring me home before I changed my mind" once I finally agreed. Romance. Over 6 years later and here we are!

If you know Katie at all, you know she doesn't exactly go with the flow. So when it got to the point where we were talking about engagement, she made it very clear that she wanted to pick the ring, which was fine with me (who wants that pressure?). We definitely confused the salesperson when we told her that no, Katie wouldn't be leaving before I bought the ring. Once I had the ring, it was time to plan the proposal. It took some thinking, but I finally settled on arranging a picnic at a nearby park and having a photographer there to capture it. I texted Katie's sister Ellen to confirm that she thought it was a good idea and never got a reply (thanks Ellen). So I had to trust my instincts and went with it. I arranged for our friend Derik to set up the picnic and had Katie's friend Amy text her to arrange a dinner under the guise of being in town for the weekend (she lived in Charlotte at the time). On our way to "dinner" with Amy and her fiance Charlie, I pulled into the park and Katie immediately knew what was up (you can only make it so much of a surprise when she saw you buy the ring). As we were walking to the picnic, Katie was interrogating me about what was going to happen. Were we still meeting Amy and Charlie at the restaurant? Was anyone else here? When I told her that Amy was actually still in Charlotte, she was visibly disappointed, at which point I was like sorry to disappoint - so lame that I'm just PROPOSING to you?! Once we got to the picnic and she saw the set-up (thanks Derik!) she quickly changed her tune and said yes (without even making a joke! A true miracle).