About Us
Val and Kevin met towards the end of their junior year (spring 2003) at WPI, when Val began hanging out in the same circle of friends as Kevin. They became closer friends over the years, and in August 2006, began dating. In April 2008, the couple became engaged. Val and Kevin are currently living in Marlborough, MA, with their 2 cats, Oliver and Amber.
The Proposal
It all began with a telegram.
Mid-afternoon, April 3, 2008. Val was sitting at her desk at work when one of her co-workers dropped off a FedEx envelope addressed to her. Curious, she opened it and pulled out a telegram from Kevin, asking her to cancel her plans for the evening (it was bowling league night, but one of her teammates was already alerted to her impending absence), and to follow a path set out for her. The first direction was to visit a certain website when she was ready to leave work, and not a moment sooner.
The couple had been discussing the possibility of marriage for a little while, and from the way the telegram was worded, Val knew in a moment that at the end of the night's journey would be a proposal. She immediately ran over to a co-worker's desk to show the telegram, share the news, and yes, to cry (a lot). Before long, the entire office knew what was going on, and much rejoicing was had. Val's boss tried to send her home early, saying he would have had to be the meanest boss to try and make someone work through the afternoon after such an exciting announcement. Alas, Val had gotten ahold of Kevin, and discovered that he was actually on his way into a meeting at work. She suspected the evening's journey would start off in or around Framingham, so she stayed (restlessly) for the remainder of the day.
When 5pm rolled around, Val logged onto the website listed on the telegram. There, she was directed to the site of the couple's first kiss. She rushed there, and hidden between 2 fences, she found a note tucked in a plastic-wrapped WPI recruitment folder. The note, a sweet remembrance of the first kiss, directed Val to another website. She quickly brought up the site on her phone; it directed her to a certain spot on the WPI campus: a meditation grove, a clearing with stone benches, surrounded by trees.
WPI was a half hour away, and Val tried not to speed, her excitement growing. She arrived, parked, and ran to the meditation grove. She looked around - no Kevin anywhere! She read the site on her phone again - it said that what she seeked was hidden behind the stone bench in the center. Her heart pounding, she looked, and there was a ribbon-wrapped ring box with a tag that said "Open Me" on it. She followed the directive, flipped open the box... and it was... empty!
For a split second, Val thought something had gone terribly wrong, then she noticed a motion on the inside of the lid. It was a video screen, and a first-person video of a roller coaster was playing. She recognized the ascent - Millennium Force at Cedar Point. The video rolled until the first drop into the tunnel, then faded into a slideshow of pictures of the couple. The second to last frame in the slideshow said "We're sorry, but the prince is in another castle...", and the last frame was a photo of the stone bench on the lawn of Higgins House.
Val sprinted down the row of trees to Higgins House. She arrived at the bench, and looked around... still no Kevin! Panic set in - had she misunderstood the video and slideshow? She opened the ring box again and began to watch the video over, but a few seconds later, noticed Kevin walking as quickly as he could to meet her. It turned out he had been hiding just outside the meditation grove to observe Val's arrival and to keep an eye on the ring box. He hadn't expected Val to run to Higgins House quite so swiftly, and since he was unable to run (he was slated for ACL surgery the next day!), he walked as quickly as he could.
The actual proposal was very traditional - Kevin got down on one knee, pulled out the real ring box, and asked Val to marry him. She, of course, said yes, and the newly engaged couple headed out to the 111 Chophouse to celebrate. The very next day, Val got to start practicing the "in sickness" part of the wedding vows early, when Kevin went in for ACL surgery (he'd managed to get down on bended knee while he still was able!). Kevin joked that the timing of the proposal was planned so that Val would take really good care of him after surgery. Val was pretty sure he was kidding... but you never know.
The Bride
Valerie Galluzzo is originally from Huntington, NY (though she doesn't have the "Lon Gisland" accent). She attended WPI from 2000-2004, graduating with a B.S. in computer science. Currently, Val works as a front-end web developer at IDG for the Computerworld, ITworld, and Infoworld websites. In her free time, Val enjoys crossword puzzles, reading, crocheting, and amateur photography.
The Groom
Kevin D'Aquila is originally from Berlin, CT, a town that has the dubious distinction of being the geographical center of Connecticut! Kevin attended WPI from 2000-2005, earning a B.S. and M.S. in computer science. He's currently employed as a software engineer at Netezza. In his free time, Kevin likes to build R/C cars, fiddle with electronic gizmos, and toss discs.