While Carissa was visiting her childhood friend in Knoxville, TN they decided to tackle a UT football game. After the game Ryan and his friends went to the same local watering hole, Tin Roof, on “The Strip” to celebrate as Carissa and her friends. Conversations started and they clicked.
They began talking every day and made plans to rendezvous for New Year's Eve in Chicago with friends. The trip to Chicago also was the site of their first date at the restaurant Carnivale. They spent the subsequent months alternating travel through snow and ice storms to see each other and meet families.
In July 2011, Ryan made the move to Minnesota and has been enjoying it ever since. Shortly after the move, they landed their first apartment together, as fate would have it, on Dean Parkway, which is also next to the Calhoun Beach Club where their wedding reception will be.
Then one unseasonably warm weekend in February, Ryan and Carissa went for a walk down by the Mississippi River and through her alma mater, University of St. Thomas' campus. They strolled by the new student center, once at the arches of St. Thomas, Ryan got down on one knee and proposed.
Their happily ever after includes their family and friends getting together in their now home state of Minnesota to celebrate on April 20, 2013.
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