We're getting married!

The first time we technically met was at a Loyola bar called "Zen West", most likely on a Friday night in September 2015. Chris was part of a senior design group project that also included Jill, my best friend, and the only thing I knew about him was that he was the leader on their project that week & was proceeding to call himself "Project Czar"- which I thought was hilariously obnoxious but also creative. Our first interaction involved me chanting "Project Czar" at him during Jill's attempt to introduce us...and after that amazing first impression our friendship grew. Running into and spending time with Chris just became part of my daily routine during the fall semester when I would find Jill in the engineering lounge of Donnelly Science Center. He immediately became someone I felt comfortable around, and I always thought of him as the outgoing guy who made everyone laugh. I found out right away he was the type of guy who could poke fun at you, but in a way that somehow wasn't annoying, and then still be sweet enough to drive you and your friends home from campus or offer to buy you pizza at the end of a night out. In November I finally gave him my number after many a snapchat conversation, which led to our first date, and we officially started dating on March 11th 2016 :)

The first time I saw Nicole was walking out of my apartment to our senior year theme party hosted by Loyola University called “Senior 250s”. She was dressed as a movie I’ve never seen but somehow know the name of (Clueless). The first time we actually had a conversation was later that week at the incredibly romantic dive bar Zen West. Jill introduced us as I was being my normal church mouse (very loud) self, telling everyone that I was the leader of our senior year group project. After that we would see each other around campus whether it was hanging out on the quad or eating lunch in Boulder. Eventually, my incredibly suave moves worked and I got Nikki to give me not only her snapchat, but also her number (without asking) and we have been talking ever since. We started dating in March later that year, although it is still not Facebook official.

We had pre-planned a weekend in the fall when my parents would be able to stay over at the Agnone's in East Marion with everyone in attendance! I was so excited to spend time with both mine and Chris' families together out east because it's one of our favorite places. My parents arrived on Saturday morning and the plan involved going to Mattebella Vineyards and then Truman Beach so we could watch the sunset. At Mattebella, we could tell that it was probably going to start raining and I was fully prepared to forget the beach idea and go back home, but no one agreed. On the drive back towards Truman Beach the drizzling started to clear up, and immediately upon arrival Chris asked if I wanted to take a picture together. Nagely offered to take it and then Chris proceeded to speed-walk/almost run all the way towards the water...I actually yelled if he was going to maybe wait for me?! Once he finally stopped, I looked back at Nagely to see that she was actually backing away from us, and then turned around to see Chris on his knee. After my initial "YEEESS!", we were able to celebrate on the beach with our families and it was perfect. When we left to go back home I was so excited to tell all of our friends but also stressed and little did I know, there was another surprise of all of our best friends and family back at the house for an engagement party afterwards. It was the best day and I couldn't have thanked everyone for helping pull it off enough!