We’re having a party!

Solis and Eli met at Knox College in April of 2019, near the end of their sophomore and freshman years, respectively. They'd noticed each other months before and began spending time together as part of the same friend group, but nothing happened between them until a mutual friend mentioned to Eli that "someone" was interested in him, and offered enough details for him to connect the dots.

They began to spend more and more time together doing homework, writing poetry, making art, and kissing in the rain; they made it official in June of 2019, retroactively deciding on an April anniversary. That summer, they made a sunstone-and-moonstone necklace that Solis wore every day.

Before dating, the two had already agreed to live in a house together the following academic year with their roommates. They spent their mornings together, waking up before anyone else to walk to breakfast as soon as it opened, in hopes of getting a little bit of alone time.

Eli began saving for a ring over winter break of that year, just 6 months after making their relationship official. After speaking to both of their mothers and designing a custom engagement ring made from a sunstone and moonstone, Eli decided to propose during their Spring Break on a camping trip at Green Oaks Biological Field Station, along the shore of the lake. 

The weather had other plans. It was cold and rainy, and their coffee pot didn't work. They decided to call the camping trip off after two nights and head back to their campus home. They loaded up the car in the downpour, secured Dumpster (their new kitty, only 6 months old!) in the backseat, and Eli decided to bite the bullet and propose on the dock, in plastic ponchos, soaking wet. The surface of the lake was dimpled from raindrops and their ripples as Eli knelt on the wet dock and asked the question: will you marry me? And Solis said yes!

They had dawdled a bit too long, and there was a good bit of mud developing now where their tent used to be; and, unfortunately, where the car now sat, parked and loaded. They spent the first hour of their engagement beaming, laughing, and struggling to push the car out of the mud and back onto the dirt road. 

Nobody came back from that Spring Break of 2020, but Solis and Eli had never left. They stayed in their campus home and played house for the next few months as they quarantined, getting permission (and supplies) from the school to paint the house's kitchen and bathroom in their free time. They talked and talked and talked, weighing the pros and cons of certain dates and types of ceremonies, until it became clear that a 2021 wedding and, indeed, even a 2022 wedding was too unlikely to bank on. They figured out that marrying wouldn't kick them off of their respective health insurance policies, and they decided that the benefits outweighed the risks. They would find a way to marry on their own, and celebrate with family when it was a bit safer.

There were no judges working, no pastors, no ministers. What were they to do?! The marriage license was simple, but finding the officiant and witnesses proved to be a pickle. Luckily, Solis' best friend from high school, Alyssa Hilko, had been ordained online as a joke years before. Bingo! Alyssa drove up from St Louis to officiate. Emily DiBenedetto, Eli's roommate, drove down from Chicago to serve as a witness, and some friends who were still on campus served as second witness and photographer. 6 people and 1 cat came together on May 13th, 2020 on the porch of Queer & Ally House to marry Solis and Eli together, followed by sushi. Coincidentally, they chose a date precisely between their birthdays, so that Solis was newly 21 and Eli was at the tail end of 19.

The two of them made incredible memories as newlyweds, afforded the rare privilege of a few months alone, creating a solid, comfortable partnership. The nearly-empty campus meant long, quiet walks every day; calm, private routines; baths uninterrupted by roommates; and a lot of video gaming. One night, they noticed an unlocked shed on the soccer field with a ladder to the roof, a new favorite place to watch the sunset. Sick of standing, they carried a bench from the tennis courts and lifted it onto the roof of the shed where it still sits today.

The school year wrapped up, and Eli and Solis moved into Eli's parents' basement in Minnesota for the summer. A pitstop in Chicago on the way brought Toaster, their second cat, into their lives, a gift from Solis' sister, Zoe. From there, they went apartment hunting (married couples were allowed to live off-campus) and moved all the way back to Galesburg in August for the following school year. They began to build a life together with their two kitties in tow.

They spent two years in Galesburg, exchanging vows privately at their first anniversary, before moving their lives to South Carolina in 2022 for Eli's first full-time job. They ended up fostering five strays (a mama and her four babies), falling in love with hockey from afar, developing a slight obsession with The Legend of Zelda, learning to despise the ever-present German cockroach, and building an incredible tolerance for heat and humidity. 

After a long job search, Eli landed a position back in Minnesota, and the two prepared to uproot their lives again, haul all their things cross-country, and return to the Midwest. They moved into their beautiful Minneapolis apartment in July of 2024 and haven't looked back. 

Now, it's finally time to celebrate.