Rob and Polina met each other in 2015 at UConn for Polina’s friend’s birthday party. The group of four had planned to get together to celebrate and Rob and his friend came to pick up the two girls from their dorm room. Rob had already seen a picture of Polina previously and knew he thought she was cute but knew he had to play it cool when they met for the first time. Polina got in the car and Rob casually said “hey” without even turning around to look at her! He later told her he was trying to play “hard to get” so Polina would be more intrigued (she was not and originally thought he wasn’t very nice!) When they got to their friend’s apartment, it was a little awkward at first, but as soon as they got to talking, they knew they enjoyed each other’s company. They hit it off so much that Rob invited Polina to go on a real date to Dunkin Donuts the next week. The day of the date came around and Polina rushed after class to meet Rob at the Student Union on campus. Rob was already there waiting for her for their coffee date with a cup of coffee from Dunkin Donuts. Polina was so nervous, she declined Rob’s offer to buy her a cup of coffee. She did offer to buy Rob some food from the Student Union and Rob later said that this made him like Polina even more because she was so generous. The two talked for hours about everything and anything and got along so well. They liked each other so much that at the end of the date, they had already scheduled the next time they would see each other. After that first date, Rob and Polina were inseparable, and continued their adventures together every day since. Since then, we have gone through long distance as Polina finished school, lived together in Brooklyn, Rob graduated from PA school, Polina graduated with her Masters, and moved together to NYC to start our jobs. Along the way, we have met some great people that we are looking forward to sharing our special day with!

Polina and I traveled for the weekend to the Berkshires in MA for our 5th anniversary. On the morning of September 26th, we drove to NY to visit an adventure park after having celebrated our 5 year anniversary the night before. We spent five hours at the adventure park with the ring in my backpack the whole time. I had the idea to propose under a waterfall “nearby” (which was still a 1.5 hour drive). Polina and I decided to go on the hardest course at the end and we ended up spending more time than I had planned to finish it. I knew we couldn’t make it to the waterfall hike and make it back for our dinner reservation in that time, so I had to quickly change the plans. I nonchalantly asked Polina if she’d be okay going to a different trail to which she said “sure! But I’m pretty tired so if you just want to go back and relax I wouldn’t be opposed to that”. Obviously we had to go on the hike so I said “let’s do it!”. The waterfall hike I originally planned was supposed to be a flat walk but this one ended up being a 45 minute hike on a steep slope. Even though my stomach was in knots on the drive to the hiking spot, I was so out of breath on the hike uphill, I couldn’t even think about how nervous I was. We reached the top and the view was spectacular. We walk over to a bench nearby and I told Polina we should get a picture of the two of us. I asked her to go stand in front of the view as I “set up the camera”. She had no idea what was going on until I start reaching for my backpack. She asks me what I’m getting and I tell her I’m getting a sweater, to which she gives me a weird look and says “but we’re sweating”. I smile and pull the ring out of my backpack. I proposed and she said YES! We are so excited to have our closest family and friends with us on our special day. We are thrilled to start this new chapter in our lives together and we hope you are all able to join us to celebrate!