Sumer Panesar’s plans for his surprise marriage proposal included popping the question on the University of New Hampshire campus. That’s where he first met his fiancée-to-be, Maureen O’Brien, when they were both undergraduates at the U.S. university.

The two graduated in 2016. O’Brien, who also earned a master’s degree at UNH in 2017, decided to reunite with some of her closest college friends during the June 2022 alumni reunion. She thought her boyfriend would be back home in Indiana golfing. But that was his cover for much loftier plans.