(as told by Annie...)

As most of you know, Dan and I met at Fenwick High School our freshman year, which was in 1996. And by "met" I mean definitely were never formally introduced, barely interacted with one another and probably our only encounter was to copy homework...However, as some of you know and witnessed, I had a massive crush on Dan but he was completely oblivious. It took Dan until second semester of our sophomore year to finally notice me (um could it be that I lost the braces and amazing 80's bangs?!) and make a move. We began dating on Friday, the 13th of February (I am pretty sure 13 is a lucky number for Italians, right??) at Katie Madda's house and dated all through high school. We decided to break up for college since he was off to Ohio and I to Champaign. After two years apart (kind-of) we decided enough was enough and got back together for good.

I love surprises and Dan did an amazing job of surprising me on the night we got engaged. He picked me up from the airport to take me to his parent's house for what I thought would be a normal Sunday night dinner - I was wrong. We came upon the back of the house to find all of his family going crazy because a fire had started in the kitchen (true story but an oven fire not a real 5 alarm fie or anything!) In the commotion Dr. Berni asked us to take Sam (their yellow lab) over to the park while they aired-out the house. I obliviously obliged... We walked across the street to the Priory. It was a brisk November night (the 16th to be exact) and snow started to fall. We walked deeper and deeper into the park (which I later found out it was to stall a bit). Dan asked that I hold Sam's leash while he rummaged through his pockets (for what I assume was a doggie bag.) He dropped to his knee and proposed right in the middle of the Priory park with the snow falling all around us! After much disbelief on my end and a YES we walked back to his parents house to find our families waiting to toast us!!! It was by far the most perfect night.