How the couple met:

Despite knowing so many of the same people from high school, Brandon and Rikelle had never actually spoken before. They shared a mutual friend, Jake, and Rikelle had heard through him that Brandon thought she was beautiful and was interested.

Then one night, completely out of nowhere, Jake FaceTimed Rikelle. She remembers looking at her phone thinking, “Why is Jake FaceTiming me?” Normally, she probably wouldn’t have answered, but for some reason, she had a feeling that she should.

When she picked up, Jake was with Brandon.

What started as a random FaceTime, quickly turned into Rikelle and Brandon already planning their first date. The plan changed a few times as their conversation kept flowing. Then they finally landed on going to the Fox Valley Mall. Rikelle loved the idea. She had grown up going there with her mom from when she was a little girl, and through her teenage years, so it already held so many memories for her.

Before Brandon picked Rikelle up for their date, she asked him “Am I going to be taller than you?” Brandon remembers thinking, “Is this girl serious?” He picked up pretty quickly that they had the same sense of humor.

The date must’ve gone better than expected, because Brandon asked Rikelle to be his girlfriend under the mall Christmas tree before the first date was even over. Rikelle remembers thinking that saying yes was probably a little crazy… but for some reason, saying no felt crazier. She admired his straightforwardness, and found it refreshing that he knew what he wanted.
So she said yes.
December 3rd, 2021 was the day they made it official!

The best part is that neither of them knew they were both texting their friends throughout the date saying basically the same thing:
I think I found the one.

Engagement story:

When I first started looking for engagement rings, I knew I wanted to find the ring she had always pictured herself wearing. So naturally, I started stalking her Pinterest. I went through everything I could find until I knew exactly what she loved. And when I finally went shopping for it, I knew exactly what to look for.

But getting the ring was only part of it. Before I proposed, there was something else that was really important to me.. Asking her parents for their blessing.

The problem was figuring out how to get home to Illinois from Florida without Rikelle realizing what I was doing. So I came up with probably one of the worst lies I’ve ever told her. I told her my 90 year old grandpa was sick and that I needed to fly home to see him.

He was completely fine. 😭

The real reason I flew home was to sit down with her parents and ask them for their permission to marry their daughter. I wanted to do it the right way. And having that conversation with them made everything feel even more real.

Then came Portugal.

By that point, I was carrying around this massive secret. Rikelle thought we were just enjoying our trip together, while every beautiful place we visited had me thinking, could this be the spot? I didn’t want to propose somewhere just because it was famous or because it would make a good picture. I wanted somewhere private enough that the moment could belong to just us, but beautiful enough that we would remember exactly where we were for the rest of our lives. I was looking the entire time. And then we got to Cabo da Roca.

Standing there on the cliffs, something about it just felt different. I remember looking around and realizing… This was it. I was nervous, obviously. But more than anything, I remember feeling sure. Sure about the ring, sure about the moment, and most importantly, sure about her.

So on January 26, 2026, at Cabo da Roca in Portugal, I got down on one knee and asked my best friend to marry me.

She said yes. ❤️

And now Portugal will forever be the place where our next chapter began.