Her Version:

Starting college at RPI was a bit of a culture shock; this comes from place of love, but engineers can be a little strange to say the least. After settling in freshman year and finding my niche, I auditioned to be in the Rensselyrics, RPI's oldest a cappella group. Despite not liking the spotlight and feeling terribly nervous, I had been involved in musical groups all throughout school and didn't want to stop. To my excitement, I was welcomed into the 'Lyrics and nicknamed The-Saurus by none other than Chris himself (of which the group unanimously approved).

Chris was the student musical director of the Rensselyrics at the time, and he was quite the ham. I thought he was fun and magnanimous, but didn't take him seriously at all until we talked about jazz. After that, I realized there was definitely more substance behind the razzle dazzle and a really genuine, kind soul. I texted him about a new Herbie Hancock album collab over winter break and we started chatting back and forth from there.

Once we both returned from the holiday break for our spring semester, he joined my friends and I for a Tuesday student showing of In Bruges at the Spectrum Theater in Albany. When I called from my car to tell him I was there to pick him up, I saw him do a little dance in his dorm room after we hung up the phone. It was adorkable and something I will never forget. Chris will tell you he almost died due to my driving on the way there, but it is a lie. In all fairness to Chris, I was (previously) a very aggressive NY driver, but CA has since rounded those edges out. During the drive I was mostly consumed by the thought of how weird and definitely unromantic the movie we were about to see was coupled with the anxiety of really wanting my friends to like and approve of Chris...Of course, everyone loved him (going back to being a magnanimous ham) and we had so much fun.

The rest of college went by in a flash, but there were many more movie nights, XL Pizza Bella cheese pies, and road trips shared. We had a rock on campus where we would hide notes for each other between classes. After some sad airport goodbyes during internships and new jobs, we knew we had to figure out a way to be together.

I moved out to CA in 2012, and Chris and I found a 600sf studio right on the Panhandle Park. We added Arthur the bunny to our family in January 2013, and he took up roughly half of the little space we had. After living in such close quarters without killing each other, we figured things would definitely work! We've moved a couple more times since then, and added Pippa (the greatest dog in the world) to our family.

In 2017, Chris and I had designed a ring right before heading back to NY for a visit. Chris had alluded to proposing at our special rock on RPI's campus. Little did I know this was an elaborate ruse to throw me off of the real proposal he had planned in Monterey before we left.

I'm always excited to go to Monterey, and when Chris mentioned we should head down there I was pumped. I couldn't wait to go to the aquarium. We drove down Friday after work stopping at one of our old standbys, Lillian's Italian Kitchen in Santa Cruz for dinner on the way. Once we were in Monterey, we headed to Alvarado Street Brewery for a drink. I was ready to head back to the hotel after a drink so I could be up first thing the next day to get to the aquarium right when it opened. To my dismay, Chris seemed really jittery and wanted to head to another bar and keep walking. After pointing out it was already 11:15 pm and we had to be up early the next day, we walked to the pier to listen to the sea lions. At the pier I again reminded Chris that it was nearly midnight and we had a busy day in front of us. He said we just needed to walk a little further and was being super weird.

Around midnight, we got to the Plaza at Monterey Hotel & Spa and went out to look at the water in the moonlight. I've always loved this spot and had awesome memories from our stays there. After taking in the view from the top terrace, we went down to the bottom deck closer to the water. As I pointed out the moon, I turned around to see Chris on one knee and the rest is history!