Our Story

Our story begins at a medium sized university in central Illinois called Bradley University. Both Fred and Cyndi looked at many colleges and universities before each deciding to attend Bradley. Cyndi had an uncle that went to Bradley which helped in her decision to go there. Fred liked the size and the undecided program that Bradley offered. After they both accepted to attend BU, that summer they attended the same orientation session. This three day session got them both used to campus, the classes they would be taking, and the potential opportunities the would be able to take advantage of. They didn't meet until the last day when they were standing in line to get their ID pictures taken.

After having a small conversation in line, the both parted ways. Fred recalls only knowing Cyndi as "the girl from Tinley Park." Her distinct attire of a black Nike Soccer shirt with cut off shorts, her green eyes, and curley hair was enough of an image to be burned into his memory, even to this day.

After continuing the two months of summer, finally "move in" day arrived and they both made the trek to Peoria with all their stuff. Fred moved into Wyckoff Hallwhile Cyndi moved into University Hall. These dorms resided on the opposite ends of campus (a whole 2 1/2 blocks apart!), but were both foreign to each other. On the first day, Fred had moved all of his stuff in and had met his roommate, AJ. He was sitting in their leather chair chilling out in his room when low and behold right outside his door was "the girl from Tinley Park!" Cyndi had met her roommate Jean Anne while at orientation as well as Shari, a now close friend and bridesmaid. Cyndi, Shari, and Jean were out looking for a guy Shari knew (who actually didn't go to Bradley, but it was a good excuse to wander the boys floors in the dorms asking around). Shari did, however, know Tom, who lived across the hall from Fred. So on a surpise visit to Tom, Fred re-met "the girl from Tinley Park." Fred, shy but assertive, made some small talk like "Hey! Remember me? From the ID picture line at orientation." or something along those lines. In actuallity he was a little embarrased that he had a huge teeny weeny bikini clad Jenny McCarthy poster on his wall, but he made his move anyway. After that short encounter Fred knew he had to "run into" her more often because he still didn't know her name.

At Bradley, you move in on Saturday and they give you a couple days to get acclimated with campus before they spring classes on you. Fred decided to Rush a greek house, as did Cyndi. After the first round of Rush, Cyndi dropped out because it wasn't her style. Fred made it through the full first round intending to go through the second round that Friday night. On Sunday, the day after move in day, Fred was persuaded by his Assistant Resident Advisor (ARA) to go to an ice breaker with a bunch of other guys on his floor. He conceded because the guys he had started to hang out with were going. Again, Fred runs into "the girl from Tinley Park" at this ice breaker event. It consisted of a bunch of interactive events to get you to trust and meet new people. It was here that Fred finally learned Cyndi's name.

Fred had tried to get a hold of Cyndi by phone, running into her, etc. for the next two days to no avail. She was always busy, or not home, or something. He finally confessed to AJ that he wasn't going to put anymore effort into trying to chase her down and was giving up. On Wednesday, the first day of class, Fred received a phone call from Jean Anne, Cyndi's roommate. She was concerned that she was being a bad roommate by leaving her alone on her first Friday night on campus by going home for the night. So she asked if Fred would call her up and ask her to do something that night. Fred agreed because he was told by Jean that she would get Cyndi to agree to go out. Fred made the call later that night asking Cyndi if she would like to go to dinner (dorm style...in retrospect that wasn't the most smooth move in the book) and to the Marty Theatre in the Student Center to see Twister. She agreed and said he could swing by her room around 5 pm for dinner on Firday. After hanging up with Cyndi, Fred realized that Friday night was the second round of greek rush. Fred looked over his acceptance card from first round and decided that he was going to bail on second round, not sure about social fraternities. Now, little did Fred know that he was being set up by Cyndi. She had made Jean call Fred to get him to call her to ask her out. Fred...Note to self big guy, if you looked up "gullible" in the dictionary, you would find a picture of you next to the definition. Likewise with "sucker","played", and "fooled"). Fred was on cloud nine because he had a pseudo date with Cyndi.

Friday came around and Fred walked on over to U-hall on the other side of campus (like we said earlier, a whole 2 1/2 blocks, but it was still called the South Side). Jean was just leaving and said, "you better be out of my room by 3 pm tomorrow!" Fred quickly replied, "I'll be lucky if I see 1 am!" Fred met Cyndi up at her corner room on the third floor, room 300. She answered the door. Again Fred was in awe of her beauty. This time she was wearing a green polo shirt with the cut off shorts. Well Fred and Cyndi never made it to dinner, or the movie. The both talked the whole night long getting to know each other better. Later they watched the Lion King. Fred left that later that night.

After that night Fred and Cyndi hung out a little each day. Fred finally was thinking that this could quickly turn into his first girlfriend at college, but Cyndi didn't want to tie herself down just yet. This difference of opinion split the two of them up for a short while. They became friends and left it at that for the time. Fred went on to other interests, girls, sports, hanging out with the Wyckoff 2 SuperStickman, and going to Phi Tau parties on the weekend. Cyndi chased the soccer and basketball boys and as well went to Phi Tau parties. Fred was hanging out with his friend Dave later that semester when Dave made comment of this cute girl in his biology class. She was short, curley hair, athletic, cute, lived in U-hall and her name was Cyndi. HOLY COW, this wa the same girl! Fred told Dave he would hook him up and did. They made a random visit over to the 300 room after lunch one day and Fred made the introductions. They all started to form mutual friends which has since then become the composite of their main group of college friends, Dave, Ben, Mike, Scott, James, Fred, Cyndi, Shari, Ami, and Amy. They met at each others rooms to "pre-party" and go out on the weekends. They played volleyball in the quads in the fall and spring. Snow ball fights and snow football in the winter.

Fred and Cyndi started dating in the middle of their sophomore year and have been dating ever since. Cyndi decided to remain in Peoria from the summer before Junior year through Senior year. Fred always moved home for the summer to work in Chicago for law firms, and a housewares company. They have had a few breaks in their college stint, but in the end, they knew they were the ones for each other. The both took five year to graduate. Fred took longer because he declared as late as possible in the business school and attempted to get a multimedia minor, but due to conflicts with the business school and communications school class times, had to settle for his major in Business Marketing. Cyndi ended up switching majors her sophomore year to elementary education. The both graduated in May of 2001 and moved back home. Fred ended up working at the American Bar Association in downtown Chicago while Cyndi works for Conrady Jr. High School in Hickory Hills, IL as a math and gym teacher.

Fred proposed to Cyndi on December 14th. Fred tried to bill their weekend downtown as a promotion celebration. Fred had earlier ordered Dave Matthews Band tickets for Dec. 13th. He originally intended to come back downtown to take Cyndi down State Street, skate at Millenium Park, and go up Michigan Avenue, ending up at RL (Ralph Lauren's Bar and Grill) on the near north side by his office. Two weeks before the show, the DMB fan club gave all the United Center ticket holders a chance to get a room at the House of Blues Hotel. Fred put his lottery number in and ended up getting a room. He arranged for Cyndi to take the train into the city after school on the 13th with a little help from some of her school friends.

Fred checked into the hotel after work on that Friday. He then met Cyndi down at her train station and brought her back to the hotel. They then took a cab over to the United Center for the show. They had a great time at the concert. Afterwards, the called it a night and went back to the hotel. The next day the checked out, went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. They then proceeded down State Street to see the Marshall Fields windows, and on to Michigan Avenue. After walking all afternoon in and out of stores on the Mag Mile, the came to the old Chicago Water Tower. While walking through the courtyard, there was a wedding party getting their pictures taken. Cyndi commented on how cold the bridesmaids must be as it was around 35 degrees out that day. Fred then stopped Cyndi and went down on one knee and proposed to Cyndi, in which she gave an emphatic yet while starting to cry. Fred admits to having run through his head a bunch of things he wanted to say to her, but all that came out was "Will you marry me?" They sat there in the courtyard for a few minutes to collect themselves. Two minutes later, Rob, Fred's brother, called on his cell phone asking if DMB played the song Ants Marching the night before. Rob was going to the concert that night and wanted to know if he could expect to hear the song. Fred then proceeded to ask him if he wanted to talk to his future sister in-law? Rob was shocked and excited. After haning up with Rob, Fred's mom called, quietly asking "Did she say yes?" To her response Fred said "Mom?! I just asked her!"

After hanging up with Fred's mom, they proceeded to dinner at RL. Cyndi was 90% sure Fred was going to propose that weekend, but thought it was going to be at dinner. Fred didn't fool her as she did years before to him. Fred had arranged for dinner to be special. He had Cyndi's drink arranged with the bartender before they got there as well as worked with the restaurant managers for some special treatment. They got a corner table, excellent service, and a complimentary bottle of champaign. After dinner, they went on a carriage ride around the water tower district while making phone calls to all their family and friends.

And now that brings us to this moment. The wedding plans are in gear and December I'm sure will be here quicker than they thought. That's our story, and we're sticking to it.

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