Come celebrate the culmination of awkward side hugs, sweaty hands, and lots of love with us on January 18th! See you in Portland!

We met in the dormitory lobby playing games and didn’t think much of it. Then we met again at the resident Building 9 art auction. And it just clicked, we became each other's go-to for everything. He'd never been to a concert and I need someone to go to basketball games with. The day after Valentine's Day we went rollerskating and people kept asking "ArE yOu DaTiNg YeT!?" That’s pretty much when we thought, “Okay. There's something here.”

Station 22 has THE BEST chicken & waffles in the whole world. So I knew that it had to be incorporated as part of this special moment. That was the one-piece set in stone, along with the fact that I wanted to catch her off guard. We had talked about getting married for a while, so I wanted at least this part to be a surprise. For days I thought about how I should ask Emily to marry me, and yet I couldn't think of an extravagant idea. Yet again, I knew how extravagant the chicken and waffles were so I stuck to that. We arrived to dinner Friday night and were seated at a table right next to the bookshelf. It didn't take us long to find The Magic Tree House to read while we waited for dinner. We made a mistake though and decided to try something new instead of ordering the chicken and waffles. Halfway through eating, we both realized that we were selling ourselves short by not having that waffle experience. So, when our waiter came with the check, we asked him to bring us a plate of chicken and waffles. I think he was surprised, but a few minutes later all was made right and we had our chicken and waffles :) The nerves started setting in as I knew the time to propose was approaching. As we left the restaurant I asked Emily if we could go for a walk around the temple. It was just across the street from Station 22. She said yes, and so we crossed the street and made our way over there. I had no idea what I was going to say and my heart was racing as I was looking for a quiet and private place where we could sit down, just the two of us. After a lap around the temple, we found a spot on a nearby bench and sat down next to each other. Some families made their way past us as we sat there enjoying one another's company. After they left, I knew the time had arrived. I looked at Emily, told her how much I love her, and got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. And I definitely caught her off guard.