City Rooftop Wedding in Downtown Calgary

“We met through mutual friends in Regina while I was playing on the University of Regina hockey team in 2014. I remember connecting with her as we shared stories about travel adventures and stories of far away places. Over the next few years, we would catch up sporadically as we ran into each other from time to time at one of Regina’s few local taverns. It wasn’t until October of 2017, after many missed “signals” from Kelli, that I finally built the courage to ask her on a date to Earl’s in Regina. In my typical fashion I was 20 minutes late to pick her up, but the date went outstanding (in my humble opinion). However, I wasn’t sure how she felt about the fact that I “forgot” to pick up the tab. Well, it must have gone well because I was able to convince her to join me on three more dates in as many days, and just happened to “run into her” on the fourth as well. I quickly learned that we had many mutual friends and could usually affect fate and make our paths cross quite often – Regina is quite small after all! I met her family at their farm in Eston for Easter of 2018 while she got to know my family as I dragged her across the province to watch my senior hockey games. Soon we were spending so much time together we decided to get a place of our own. The next year flew by highlighted with amazing and memorable trips to Vancouver, Jamaica, Colombia and Ecuador. I started going to her spin classes at Wheelhouse and training to run a half marathon – I really needed to be in shape to keep up with a girl like Kelli. All of this mixed in with weekly meetups with our seemingly endless amount of friends and you can see how time can seemingly fly by. In November of 2019, I had recently graduated university so we decided to feed our shared sense of adventure with a big move to Calgary. I should mention we upped the ante with the fact that neither of us had jobs when we arrived. Luckily Kelli landed a job as a dental hygienist at an office she loves and the first months rent got paid on time. Shortly after I was able to find work teaching and we settled in just fine. Now we spend our time hiking in the nearby mountains, snowboarding with friends who quite often use our spare room as basecamp for long weekends, and searching for the world’s greatest poutine (Kelli’s favourite pastime). I think we truly could not be happier, but I’ve been wrong before… After a cancelled trip to Paris, Egypt and Jordan due to Covid, where I had a surprise planned for Kelli, we made a plan B and flew to Vancouver Island for 10 days in September 2020. Her birthday was approaching in three short days on the 17th, as we inched along in highway construction. The pouring rain and smoke from the California wildfires had put a damper on our vacation so I knew something needed to be done. “Minutes after arriving at our hotel in Ucluelet he insisted we go for a hike – in the pouring rain. I was hangry and carsick, but he was persistent and pushy. John insisted that it would be a short hike and we just needed to get outside after being cooped up in a car all day. Again – it is pouring rain. After a short drive to the trailhead we zip up our coats and head on out. I was leading the way and caught up in the beauty of the old growth rainforest. John trailed behind me the entire time, often stopping to look at the ferns or walk in the trees. I was just trying to not slip on the boardwalk and get back to the car. John kept asking, “how much time do you think is left in the hike?”, and even suggested we, “do the loop again”. I put my foot down here and let him know we would not be taking another lap. Soon after, John anxiously said something to me like “Kelli, come here”. He had no speech prepared so he fumbled over his words for a brief instance and then pulled out a ring from his pocket as he got down on one knee. I assume in his mumbling he said, “will you be my wife?” as the ring nearly slipped out of his soaking wet hands. He put the glistening diamond on my finger and he held me tight as the rain continued to fall around us.”