About Kelci and Ryan

To tell our love story, we chose to answer a few questions about our relationship. We both answered these questions without knowledge of the other person’s answers. Hope you all enjoy!

~Kelci and Ryan~

How did you meet each other?

Kelci’s Response…

Well the simple answer: bowling at Iowa State. I was the crazy, loud, and very in-charge type and Ryan was the freshman who was just there to bowl. Since he knew Sam, he was quickly recruited into our scratch league team. Being stuck in the dorms, Ryan was always looking for a ride. For the first half of the year, he was able to find one that wasn’t me. In the second half of the year, I was recruited to drive Ryan to and from bowling twice a week. To ‘repay’ me Ryan would feed me dinner from the dining halls a couple of times a week. Really, I think Ryan was just trying to keep me around since he was crushing pretty hard. We talked for hours at a time while we ate a late dinner. We closed down the dining halls (and a few restaurants) on multiple occasions. We got to know each other over these late night meals, and slowly but surely I fell for Ryan.

Ryan’s Response…

Kelci and I met bowling at Iowa State. The first time I remember seeing her, she showed up late to the first day of tryouts and started being really loud and bossy. Apparently our friend Sam had told her that I was supposed to be good at bowling. I definitely did not prove anything of the sort that first day.  After that, I joined the Thursday night scratch league with her and got to know her a lot better. After my ride to Thursday league left for a Co-op, I asked Kelci to start giving me rides for the spring semester. I paid her back with trips to Clyde’s using meals from my meal plan. We spent hours every night after bowling talking and becoming good friends.

What’s the first date story?

Kelci’s Response…

Well depends on what you call the ‘first’ date. We had an unofficial, unplanned date that Ryan and I both consider to be our ‘first’ date (and use as a Valentine’s day replacement). It was simple (and probably uneventful by most people’s standards), but it was the first time Ryan and I really connected as a couple rather than just friends. We went to a bowling club meeting (really, I went and dragged Ryan for company), played cribbage on Central Campus, I drug him to Starbucks to ‘do homework’, we made baked mac and cheese for dinner, and watched a movie. It was nothing that most would consider special and it certainly wasn’t planned, but, for me, it was the first time I thought of Ryan as someone who could be more than a friend. Honestly, I can’t verbalize what is so special about that day, but that day will always live in my heart of one of the best parts of our early relationship.

Ryan’s Response…

The first date was not actually a date to start with, it was the first time we spend all day together with just each other. We had just spent the last night up late hanging out with friends in the dorms. She had a budget meeting for the bowling club the next morning. She managed to convince me to come join her later on in the morning, so I went and joined her for the last half hour or so. Afterwards we decided to go and do homework (I didn’t have any homework) at a coffee shop (I don’t like coffee). Instead of doing homework she talked to her mom for two hours while I played video games on my laptop. We then decided to stop being productive and went to central campus with a cribbage board and a frisbee. This was the first time she found out that she did not like playing cribbage with me. Finally, we stopped at the store for mac and cheese stuff and went back to her apartment to cook it. We had planned on watching The Good Dinosaur at Cyclone Cinema, but ended up watching a couple of other movies in her apartment instead. The night ended with her falling asleep on my lap while watching the last movie. We spend the next few nights together as well, and later on decided that this first day was actually our first date.

What is your favorite thing about the other?

Kelci’s Response…

Ryan is so steady and calm, no matter what the situation is. It’s honestly one of the traits that drew me to him. As most people know, I can be a bit spazzy and explosive at times, but Ryan isn’t. When the world is ending or I want nothing to do with anyone, Ryan is right there steady as can be to bring me back to a state of normalcy. He’s my rock, my center of gravity and I can’t even thank him enough for that.

Ryan’s Response…

I have so many favorites about Kelci, so it is hard to choose. She is kind and caring, she loves to have fun (she might be the bad influence in the relationship), she is great at cooking and we love to cook together. She is loud while I am quiet. I love everything about her. One of the best things is that if you are down and need someone, she will be there for me, or any of her friends, without question.

What’s been the best date so far?

Kelci’s Response…

London without a doubt. We had planned to go to dinner at this restaurant on the upper floors of one of the skyscrapers in London. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the restaurant that we had made a reservation wasn’t available. We walked to a coffee shop (so that we could find wifi because data is hella expensive in a forgein country) to lookup an alternate dinner spot and found this hole-in-wall (but crazy high quality) steakhouse. We had a wonderful dinner where we drank our way through two wonderful bottles of wine and had a delicious cheese plate for desert. I think we stayed at the restaurant for almost two hours talking about anything and everything. I remember the waitress asking how we found the place; I can image her thought of “how the hell did these Americans end up here”. After dinner, we walked around downtown London and took pictures with the different landmarks that we had visited the day before. Apart from being in London, the night was special because it was spontaneous and had no expectations.

Ryan’s Response…

The best date night so far, other than the proposal, was the one we didn’t plan at all in London. We had a date scheduled to view the Sky Garden and eat dinner at the top of a London skyscraper, but a medical emergency happened and we were waiting for over an hour to get in. We decided then that it wasn’t worth the wait and went to a coffee shop to find wifi to look for another restaurant. We didn’t find out until later that the restaurants and the Sky Garden was closed down for the rest of the night, but our decision was a good one.  We were dressed up, so we wanted a higher end restaurant and found what looked to be a very fancy restaurant with good reviews. It was a little hard to find as it was below ground through a set of doors and down some stairs, but in the end we found it. We got seated quickly and read through the menu. We had one of the wait staff recommend a bottle of wine and we found some nice steaks on the menu. We enjoyed what turned out to be some of the most delicious steak that we have ever had. We spent the rest of the night enjoying the excellent service and each others company, not in the tall skyscraper like we expected, but below ground in a small restaurant. It turned out to be one of the best nights we have ever had together even though our initial plans went awry. We finished it off with a cheese plate for dessert and walked around London before taking the subway back to our room.

When did you know that they were ‘the one’?

Kelci’s Response…

I’m not sure if there was a ‘moment’ where I knew he was ‘the one’. Ryan wormed his way into my life and my heart; it was almost like I didn’t want to love him. But Ryan was always there when I needed a shoulder to cry on or when I needed a laugh to dash the tears away. It took my a long time to realize that Ryan would always be there when I needed him and even more to realize that he was the one I wanted to be there.

Ryan’s Response…

I don’t really have a “yep she’s the one” moment that I remember, but I know that as we started dating, I just started caring more and more for her. She was fantastic and fun to be around. We had talked about our future and what we wanted to see in it. We agreed on almost everything.  I eventually got to the point where I decided that I couldn’t live without her, so I wanted to make it official.

How did the proposal go down?

Kelci’s Response…

So in order to get the full effect of the story I have to back up a bit. Ryan and I were doing a ‘long-distance’ thing because of his co-op in Minneapolis; it was a really tough time for me where I doubted a lot about myself and our relationship. So I sought confirmation from Ryan who promised that I had nothing to worry about. One night when I anticipated that time was close (in hindsight it was a couple days before), Ryan and I were playing a version of ‘truth or dare’ over a bottle of wine. Trusting that he wouldn’t fib, I asked Ryan if he’d bought a ring. When he told me that he hadn’t, I was utterly convinced that it would be quite a bit more time before he proposed. More on that little detail later…

Well a couple of days later, my birthday rolls around and we go to the restaurant where we had our first ‘official’ date out in Ames. I thought to myself, it would be so sweet if this is where we went to dinner when he does propose (again completely convinced his proposal was still a while out). I had a rough day at work that day and told Ryan that I couldn’t wait to have a nice quiet birthday in (yeah, I was in for a huge surprise). After we got in the car, Ryan looks at me and asks “Are you ready for your birthday present?” Slightly confused, I told him I was and he handed me a blindfold. Instantly my heart leapt, but I was still absolutely convinced that it wasn’t time yet. Of course, I’ve spent enough time around Ames to know exactly where he was going: the iconic Campanile on Central Campus (brief sidebar: it’s an Iowa State tradition to kiss your love under the Campanile at midnight and yes we have gone Campaniling together). He led me (still blindfolded) to the Campanile where he got down on one knee… 

That would have been more than enough to make me ecstatic for months, but Ryan wasn’t done. He knew that I wanted pictures of the moment, so he had recruited one of my best friends (who was in town for a friend’s wedding) to capture the moment. After our moment, Sonia ran off to give us some time together (she was staying with us for the night – another surprise for me). 

Once it was just the two of us, I pretty quickly requested an explanation of his response to my question a few days prior. He explained it was his grandma’s wedding ring that he had used to propose, so in truth he never actually ‘bought’ a ring. I felt so honored to receive his grandmother’s ring because I knew that it also came from Ryan’s family; I really believe that his grandma would have wanted it that way too. After, Ryan filled in that detail, we walked around campus (we had a really lucky January night) while Ryan complained about the woes of ring shopping (since he couldn’t to me for the past few weeks). Eventually the weather got the better of us and we left to go home. 

As we parked on the street, I noticed that another one of friend’s car was parked on the street as well. I thought to myself “Ryan invited Alex over. It would have been great if he had all of our nearby friends over!” I didn’t see the other cars, so it didn’t occur to me that he probably did. Walking into the apartment, I saw a tall, stocky figure in the shadows, I thought “That’s not Alex, that almost looks like Dillon”. Suddenly, the light flips on and it’s not only my brother and Sonia and Alex, but several other of my closest friends. Ryan even thought to arrange to have Michaela on the phone from Omaha. We spent the rest of the night celebrating with some of my favorite people.

Even though I knew that it was coming (and I thought I knew when), Ryan caught me completely off-guard and swept me off my feet.

Ryan’s Response…

I had planned to proposal ahead of time starting a couple weeks. I had begun planning with her friend Sonia because I knew that she would be in town during Kelci’s birthday, the day that I was planning on proposing. It started out with me needing someone to photograph the proposal, and turned into her half planning the night with me. My plan was to invite all of her friends over and have them wait in the apartment until we got back after the proposal. Sonia did wonders in helping me organize all of her friends and find me someone to design Kelci’s ring, however we did not have enough time to design and make a ring before the proposal date… I started talking to my dad and he offered my Grandma Evelyn’s wedding ring to propose with. He said that afterwards, we could use the diamond out of that ring to be the centerpiece in her new ring. I thought this sounded fantastic, so I ended up meeting my mom and dad in Minnesota during the day while Kelci was working. I drove up after she left for work and made it back half an hour before she got home, so she had no idea that I had left. The night before the proposal Kelci had an idea that I would be proposing on her birthday, so she asked me if she could have one question about the plans for her birthday (I am not good at lying), so I was worried about what it would be. She decided to ask “Have you bought a ring yet?”. This made my life easy as I hadn’t actually bought a ring, so I didn’t have to lie at all.

The night of the proposal I started out saying that this would just be a quiet night, because she had an exhausting day at work. We went out to the first restaurant that I took her out to. We enjoyed a nice dinner with some wine, and we decided to head home to enjoy a quiet night at home. I snuck off the the bathroom to tell Sonia that we were heading out, so she would be ready to take pictures. When we left, I blindfolded her and drove to the Campanile (the clock tower on campus). Right when I opened her car door, the Campanile decided to ring (I didn’t think this one through), but I chose to ignore it and walk her there anyways (she already had a good feeling about what was going on). We arrived and I proposed underneath, and Sonia was there as well to take pictures. We enjoyed ourselves, and Sonia asked if she could come to the apartment afterwards as she was staying in Des Moines. Kelci of course said yes, so we were expecting Sonia to be there when we got back. We chose to take a walk around campus to talk about the night while Sonia drove back to our apartment.

After the walk we went back to the apartment, and I had forgotten that I had told Sonia to park in my spot, so I arrived to someone parked in my spot. I had to park on the street where everyone who was waiting to surprise Kelci had parked. Luckily most of them recognised the need for surprise and parked further away, except for one… One of our friends has a very distinct bumper sticker (Sorry Alex) and Kelci recognised her car and asked, “Did you invite Alex over as well?”. My response was, “You have to act surprised.” We walked inside and little did she know that it was not just Alex and Sonia. It was all of her Chemical Engineering friends (thanks Sonia), her brother Dillion, Sam from the bowling team, and Adam and his boyfriend, another of Kelci’s friends from college. They were all waiting with champagne, and cake and when I flipped the light on, shouting “Congratulations!” Kelci was so surprised and squeaked out, “Everyone’s here!” We then enjoyed talking about the night and showing off the pictures. All in all, my goal was to surprise Kelci with the proposal, as she knew it was coming. She helped me out the night before by asking if I had bought a ring, but I added to that by surprising her with all of her friends. Everything went by without a problem (except for the Campanile), but afterwards I heard that all of her friends except for Dillion and Sam, who I had there to unlock the apartment showed up only a couple minutes before we made it home. No one was late, but apparently it was a lot closer than I realized. If we didn’t take such a long walk, it could have gone very differently.