Our Stories

Our Story (according to Stephanie)
Our paths had unknowingly crossed a few times during our college years – during Allan's visits home to Minneapolis, we attended some of the same parties but never met. We officially met for the first time in January 2006 while out with friends. With a drink in his hand and an overconfident swagger in his step, Allan introduced himself to me. At first, I wasn't very interested. But after some dancing and good conversation, I gave Al my phone number. Luckily, he called a few days later and invited me on a date. We went to dinner and to an arcade. Al beat me at EVERY SINGLE game. Those who know how competitive I am would've called this relationship D.O.A. But I had such a blast hanging out with him – a truly genuine and fun person – I knew I wanted to see him again.

Our Story (according to Allan)
In January of 2006, I was celebrating with my best friend (and best man) Josh, who had recently become employed at an advertising agency in Minneapolis. Our endeavors lead us to a downtown bar, where l was hoping to bust a move and catch the eye of a pretty young girl. A few hours, drinks and uncoordinated dance moves later, I finally had my wish. I saw a beautiful brown-haired girl applying lip gloss, and decided to break out my best bird dance mating call – a combination of smiles, "woo-ees," and "flattering" dance moves. Much to my surprise, instead of walking away laughing at me, she started to laugh with me. We started a nice conversation and found out we had a lot in common. I called her a couple days later to see if she wanted to go out on a date. Unfortunately, I sprained my ankle playing basketball (taking down a power rebound) the night before our date, and had to hobble around Gameworks arcade, making sure I gave it my all in every game we played. Luckily for me, my performance didn't cost me a second date.

Our Engagement
Nearly three years after meeting, Allan proposed to Stephanie on November 21, 2008. Stephanie had been out of town on a business trip all week and, while she was away, Allan made a video and posted it to YouTube. When Stephanie returned from her trip, Allan pulled up the video and asked her to watch it. He is always finding interesting/funny/strange articles, videos and email forwards to share with Stephanie. So she watched the video thinking it would be just another one of Al's finds.

Half way through the video, a proposal message flashed on the screen. At first, Stephanie didn't really catch on. She thought it was someone else's really clever engagement video. Then she turned around and saw Allan kneeling in front her with a gorgeous diamond ring.