We Do!

We undoubtedly crossed paths at Upper Arlington High School, but for years were never more than that…passersby in the same grade. Nick vaguely recalls meeting Kellye in a freshmen physical science class, but Kellye doesn’t remember that at all (Nick must have left quite the impression!). Junior year, Kellye does remember sitting with her friends at lunch talking about “cute Nick Mastruserio” and how impressed they were that he wore khaki pants and sweaters in high school. A year later, we were paired as lab partners in physics the first day of senior year. However, when the second day rolled around, Kellye had dropped the class, potentially just to avoid her new partner. One of the clearest memories we can pinpoint is senior college breakfast, when we met in our maize and blue, surrounded by a sea of scarlet and grey… and even have a picture to prove it.

The first week of college the two of us and a fellow UA classmate met up for lunch and made plans to stay in touch. Within a month, we had become parts of the same friend group. After spending much of our first year getting to know each other, we went to a date party together in December. By July, we had already made plans for our families to meet for a fishing trip in West Virginia. By October, our moms had completed a marathon together in Chicago. Over the next three years of school, we became inseparable, making close friends with each other’s fraternity and sorority houses. Kellye became known to the ATO boys as “Mom” for being a stable presence and occasionally teasing them to straighten up. The nickname of “Dad” quickly followed for Nick from the girls of the ADPi house.

After college, Kellye enrolled in dental school at AN Ohio State University. Nick spent one more year in Michigan to complete his master’s in engineering, before returning home to Columbus and beginning work at MJ Engineering. Outside of school and work, we kept close with family and found new passions together. We have cherished spending many weekends at the McGlumphy family cabin in Hocking Hills; Nick picked up his tennis racquet to see if he could still beat his dad; and we have enjoyed time vacationing with both families. Beginning in early 2021 and finally completed in 2023, we started hosting friends and family at seventy “Booze and Vinyl” tasting parties – learning to make over 140 unique cocktails along the way. We are excited to finally host everyone that we know and love at Kemba Live for our biggest Booze and Vinyl yet!

After Kellye’s graduation from dental school, we planned a road trip through Canada. We traveled through Niagara Falls, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City, and back to Montreal to see the Canadian Grand Prix together. Nick couldn’t hide, for long, the fact that there were deeper motives for the trip. He arranged a private wine tasting at a vineyard in Niagara-on-the-Lake. He got down on one knee, popped the question, and we popped bottles to celebrate! We loved the rest of the trip together – hopefully a good sign for things to come. At the race, we cheered on the McLaren cars and driver Lando Norris, who became an inspiration for our puppy’s name when we picked him up a few weeks later.