Every great love story has a beginning, a middle, and — we hope — a very long, beautiful forever. Here’s a little piece of ours.
How We Met
It started with volleyball, of all things.
Jake and Em first met at a tournament in Green Bay in November ’24 — a nine-hour day on the courts and the kind of easy conversation that makes you lose track of time. By the end of it, they’d talked long enough to know there was something worth paying attention to.
Neither of them could have guessed that a random tournament on a cold November day would be the beginning of everything. But that’s how the best stories tend to start — quietly, and without warning.
Growing Together
The early months were full of adventures — road trips to see the glaciers, finding the best camping spots, evenings cooking together, and more volleyball. Jake and Em learned each other’s rhythms: the things that made them laugh, the things they were passionate about, and the quiet moments that said more than words ever could.
They started to build a life together in the most literal sense too — fences built, trees chopped down, projects tackled side by side. And through all of it, the dogs right in the thick of it all.
From one end of the country to the other and back to their own backyards, they built something real: a partnership rooted in adventure, humor, and a genuine delight in each other’s company. The quiet certainty crept in somewhere along the way — that this was exactly where they were supposed to be.
The Proposal
Jake knew long before he asked. He knew because Em made even the ordinary feel like an adventure, and he didn’t want to do any of it without her.
So on February 17th, 2026, on a beach in St. Martin — the French side, under the shade of a palm tree — he asked her to be his forever.
Em’s reaction was instant and undeniable. She was all in. And just like that, the next chapter began. Now we’re ready to make it official — surrounded by the people we love most, on the shores of Lake Michigan.
“Together is a beautiful place to be.”