Running late, the reservations at Kemoll’s restaurant and The Top of The Met become just scratched out names on a list.The back- up restaurant for their two and a half year anniversary is Buffalo Wild Wings.

After dinner, the couple return to his house. She walks past the living room, passes his parents and the Christmas tree, assuming he would follow.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Do you want me to come back?” she said. He fumbled in the back pocket of his khaki slacks.

“What are you doing? Do you want me to help you?” she said. He then pulled a small box out of his pocket.

“We’ve been together for two and a half years now,” he said, opening the box. Alex Pallardy, senior, said “Yes” and became fiancée to Christopher Jungewaelter Dec. 23, 2010.
The morning before the proposal, Chris- topher told Alex he and his dad were at the auto shop getting his truck fixed. Later that afternoon when she called, he said he was out to lunch with his dad and would call her soon. To Alex, that was weird because he never really hung out with his dad before. However, they had to find some time to buy an engagement ring.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God! How did you do that so fast?’ I didn’t even know it was coming,”Alex said.“I knew that it was going to happen, but I didn’t know that it was going to be right before Christmas.”
March 21, 2011, Alex and Christopher married at the courthouse in Minot, N. Dak., 1,105.07 miles away from Kirkwood where Christopher is based for the Air Force. She wore a white high-waisted skirt with a floral top and heels.

“If I wouldn’t have gotten married to him it would have been super hard to keep our relationship,” Alex said. “We were already super nervous not to see each other. So we were like, let’s just do it.”
Alex and Christopher met at Black River Lodge in Lesterville, Mo., where Courtney Haring, senior, invited Alex to join her there, and her cousin Christopher. A week and a half after they met, they started dating. After about two weeks of dating, he told her he loved her over iChat.

“I didn’t care about [someone] so much as I did with a previous boyfriend,” Alex said. “I knew I loved Alex as soon as I figured out I could just be myself around her,” Chris- topher said. “And she is just as goofy as I am. I’m not sure how I felt. I just know it felt right.”