Meet Us In St. Louis!

In August of 2017, as Mary Kate was going into her Sophomore year and Jack was going into his Junior year, Alpha Phi and Alpha Tau Omega were matched up for Mizzou’s annual Homecoming. In Mizzou tradition, the match celebrated with a “Marriage Party” at The Penguin Dueling Piano Bar in Columbia, MO. Mary Kate and Jack met somewhere between “Sweet Caroline” and “Come On Eileen” and have been belting out the classics together ever since. Over the next few years at Mizzou, they returned to the piano bar many times before it sadly closed its doors in 2020.

Exactly one month after the infamous “Marriage Party,” Jack officially asked Mary Kate to be his girlfriend. This began a long series of movie dates, sushi outings, and frequent trips between Bentonville and St. Louis in the summers. Since their first movie date seeing Baby Driver at Regal Columbia, they’ve been on 118 (and counting) movie dates, bankrupting MoviePass in the progress.

After Jack graduated from Mizzou in December of 2019, the Boyle clan migrated to Downtown Chicago. The two visited each other often while Mary Kate finished out her Masters in Accounting at Mizzou, graduating (virtually) in December of 2021. Following months of studying in St. Louis, and with the support of Jack and her family, she received her final passing exam score in June of 2021 and shortly after moved to Lincoln Park. On May 21st, 2022, Mary Kate and Jack ventured to North Pond, where they were to meet Jack’s family for a morning Saturday brunch. Much to her surprise, Mary Kate had scouted out the menu the night before and discovered that North Pond was closed on Saturday mornings. Mary Kate found this to be very peculiar. After a quick stroll through Lincoln Park and the arrival at a closed North Pond, Jack asked Mary Kate to marry him, and she said yes! Out popped a photographer and Jack’s twin sister, Cait, from the bushes, and they continued on to the real brunch plan at 3 Arts Club Café with Mary Kate’s family, who had stealthily made the trek from St. Louis. A couple short months later, Mary Kate and Jack enjoyed their newly engaged life and adopted their sweet puppy, Mabel, who was coincidentally born on May 21st, the day of their engagement.