Nina and Nick met in the fall of 2000 when both were first-semester graduate students at the University of Texas. When a mutual friend introduced the two of them at a Lemonheads concert, nobody had any clue that the two of them would eventually get married. Their conversation consisted of one word from Nina ("Hi.") and the usual rambling from Nick (who, it should be noted, was talking to Nina and to their friend Mary, not just to himself). Nick came away from the evening thinking Nina was quiet, while Nina thought Nick was loud. (As you all probably know by now, only one of them was right.)

Soon after the school year ended, in a move that surprised absolutely nobody who knew them, Nina and Nick began dating. Their first date, on June 22, 2001, consisted of a lavish dinner at Chili's and a couple of rounds of miniature golf. Let the record show that Nina won both games of miniature golf and that Nick, in a typical show of sportsmanship and grace in defeat, has refused to play that game with her ever since.

At some point during the summer of 2004, Nina and Nick finally figured out that they weren't going to get sick of each other any time soon. Naturally, they began talking about marriage, and when the idea caused neither of them to run away screaming, they knew they were on to something. Once they decided to get married, they quickly began making arrangements for the wedding. For the first time in recorded history, neither one of them procrastinated--they set a date and time and found sites for the ceremony and reception in practically no time. Only one minor detail remained to formalize their engagement: they had to actually get engaged. Nick was unwilling to propose without an engagement ring, and the ring Nina wanted was apparently hand-crafted by elves living in a remote region of Albania, so it took a little while to get the ring to Texas.

The ring finally arrived, and on September 10, 2004, Nick finally found the courage required to propose. (Of course, it doesn't require much courage to ask a question to which you already know the answer.) When Nina got home that day, Nick was waiting with the puzzle and asked her to solve it. Ironically, Nina really just wanted to eat dinner, as it was fairly late and she was hungry, but she played along and finished the whole puzzle. When she was done, Nick gave her a highlighter and pointed out four words for her to highlight: "Look," "in," "the," "closet." When she opened the closet, Nick picked up the ring, got down on one knee, and asked her to marry him. Nina, having been rendered speechless, simply nodded. (To this day, she still hasn't actually said yes.)