Maria and Anthony Dudas Engagement Announcement
Maria Williams, daughter of Mona & Bob Williams of Maple Grove, MN, has become engaged to Anthony Dudas, son of Al Dudas & Lisa Schroepfer of Austin, MN & Stratford, WI.
Wedding Date
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Proposal
We went for a camping weekend filled with hiking and mountain biking at the Magpie Campground just off of the Maah Daah Hey Trail; little did Maria know this was Anthony was going to pop the big question after just about 7 years of dating.
They were hiking to the Ice Caves that day with their Vizsla dogs: Kaiah & Harlow. They had reached their destination of the Caves and Maria was ready to head back to camp; Anthony walked up to the top of a rock that overlooked the beautiful badlands of the area and insisted (yelling to Maria from where he was) Maria come that way to rest and eat lunch. Maria sighed, rolled her eyes and said 'fine!'
Anthony had been wearing a GoPro the entire weekend, which Maria thought was to just catch some images of their mountain biking and hiking extravaganzas.
Once Maria reached the top of the spot and was looking out, admiring the beauty Mother Nature was offering, she hears Anthony say.... "Maria" from behind her. As she turned around, Anthony got to one knee while holding the ring and asked if she would spend the rest of her life with him as husband and wife. Of course, Maria ugly cried and muttered through her joyful tears, "YES!"
Anthony caught it all on tape to be a forever memory.
How They Met
We met while living in St. Cloud, MN... Maria moved into her sublet apartment in the Winter of 2009 where she would meet Anthony and his roommates who lived just the floor above. Anthony and his roommates frequently had their door cracked open for who ever to swing on in for a breakfast meal, drink, or in the case of our first meeting... Maria needing a plunger for her apartment toilet...
We both were seeing someone the Winter/Spring 2009 season, but were acquaintances through friends. Summer 2009 Maria moved back to Maple Grove, MN to work and live with her parents; Maria and Anthony ironically both became single late Spring 2009. Maria would Facebook 'creep' and one day messaged Anthony to "see how his summer was going so far" and so on. Maria noticed that Anthony's Facebook status moved from 'in a relationship' to 'single' just as hers had done the same....
Maria quickly messaged one of Anthony's roommates at the time and asked if his 'singleness' was true; indeed it was. Maria insisted that they all needed to hang out as a group and do dinner and drinks when she got back to St. Cloud. Anthony's roommate agreed and planned a little get together. Dinner plans didn't go as planned as Maria wasn't quite 21 yet--so they all ended up going else where and then decided to all go to Anthony's place where they'd all play drinking games, listen to music and have a good ole' time. It was all planned out, Anthony and Maria got to spend time together with their friends, and to keep it G-rated (although nothing crazy happened...) Maria kissed Anthony (going for what she wanted in life, like always)... and the rest has been history.
September 21, 2009 was our 'official' day of becoming boyfriend and girlfriend, although we had been 'together' for a few weeks prior.