We recently went to a wedding of some friends of ours from college, and during their ceremony something was said that could not have been any more true, "True love starts at 638 E University Blvd." For those of you unfamiliar with that address, if you were to Google Maps it, you would find that it is the fraternity house most of you have either been to or heard about. As funny as it sounds, looking around the crowd there had to have been about 8 or more couples, some now married and some (or soon to be...) engaged, that sentence rang true. It may not be the Hallmark way, but it's true we met at a fraternity party. Luckily for the both of us we shared a mutual friend. Our first introduction was when Brit had taken Maddy to one of the last parties of the semester in 2016. From there we began talking, but having met right before the semesters end and going home for the next 10 weeks, it wasn't more than friendly chit chat. At the beginning of the following year, Nick lived at the fraternity house which at the time had a dog. If you know Maddy she may not have been invited over to meet the dog but showed up nonetheless. From there the talking picked up where it had left off and the interest in one another continued to grow. RA sushi became the weekly date spot. We officially started dating Junior year of college! It all goes back to one spring night in Tucson, where dreams come true.

A few months before 11/12/23, Nick had asked Tony for permission to marry his daughter and of course he said yes! It was incredibly important to Nick that our families be involved so when Tony mentioned he had a work conference in Arizona the second weekend in November, the plan began to fall into place. Lucky for Nick, the conference conveniently lined up for when Elton John would be in town. This was the perfect excuse for the rest of Maddy's family to come to town. Maddy originally thought this was odd that her mom, sister, and brother-in-law would want to fly all the way from Chicago just for this but brushed it off. This weekend also perfectly lined up with Nick's sister, Reagan's bridal shower. This made it so that when Nick told Maddy his mom would also be in Arizona the same weekend it didn't appear as a set up for anything bigger. Another coincidence that Maddy thought about but brushed off. As the weekend got closer Nick informed Maddy that his work was having a work picnic on Saturday and that they would meet their families for dinner later in the day. Nick went as far as to tell Maddy that he signed them up to bring desserts and they would have to bring something with them. When Saturday rolled around, Nick baked the cookies Maddy bought and took them with them both as they made their way to Nick's "work picnic." They parked and walked up a hill at Papago Park where Maddy saw a picnic with a sign that read "Marry Me."After they enjoyed the picnic they met their family and friends for a surprise engagement party.