They met in college–UW Madison–at a football game, which is especially funny because Rebecca doesn’t like football very much, but is definitely happy now that she had tickets to the game that weekend. “We met through a mutual friend in our sophomore year,” says Rebecca. “We technically met for the first time before a football game. Alex was out with one of his friends, and I was with Jake and my friend Emily. We all happened to run into each other downtown and went to get lunch before the game. I do remember Alex being there, but we didn’t talk at all since we were in this bigger group. About a week later, Jake invited all of us to go to the next football game together and that was where I consider us actually meeting. We stood by each other the whole game and talked, and at the end before we left, Alex asked me for my phone number and it went from there!”
Alex says he knew she was the one when he did a 3-week study abroad in Costa Rica. “I had some time to think and I wanted to tell Rebecca I loved her.”
They both both graduated in 2015 and Alex got a job in Indianapolis. Rebecca ended up coming back to Iowa City for a year and they decided to try long distance and see how it went. “We ended up doing long distance up through the time I went to graduate school in Illinois! I think the long distance time period from fall 2015 through spring 2017 was a huge turning point for us. Since we both had to put in a lot of effort, we ended up getting a lot closer and had so much fun spending time together on weekends and doing Skype dates during the week. By the time I moved in with Alex in Indy in June 2017, I felt certain about us!”
I knew ahead of time that we would be getting engaged at some point because we talked about it and went and picked out a ring together. I didn’t know exactly when it would happen, but I was guessing it would be during a trip to the Smoky Mountains that we had planned for August 2021 since it was our first actual trip together since Covid had started. Alex and I had planned to stay at a super cute cabin that we had stayed at when we went to the Smoky Mountains about 4 years prior. Alex faked me out unintentionally the day before he actually proposed! We were playing the game Heads Up and doing the theme ‘The Bachelor.’ We were taking turns guessing words and phrases from the show that popped up on my phone,” says Rebecca.
Alex continues, “Rebecca had to guess ‘Proposal,’ so I said ‘Will you marry me?’ as my clue. Rebecca said, ‘Umm… yes?’ I said, ‘No, that’s the clue…’ The next night I actually proposed in our cabin in the Smoky Mountains. Rebecca said, ‘It’s real this time!'”
Rebecca says that what she admires most about Alex is, “His determination. I am always in awe of him when he has a goal that he wants to go for. He is extremely motivated, works toward it and doesn’t give up. He is able to push himself and stay focused on what he wants, which I find really inspiring!”
Alex responds that “I admire how well she treats everyone. She is very friendly and open-minded about people.”
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