After graduating from their respective universities, Chris and Kerstin each individually moved to the city of Chicago. Kerstin met her two roommates after bonding with them over their familiarity with Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the town where Kerstin attended college. The roommates happened to be Penn State alumni, which is Chris' alma mater. Five months after living together, Kerstin and her roommates decided to host a housewarming party. Little did she know that her Prince Charming would walk through the door. In he came, with an entourage of women nonetheless. Chris lit up the room making everyone laugh including Kerstin. Even though he didn't bother to introduce himself to her, he had caught her eye and sparked her to ask , "Who is that guy? He's kind of cute." It wasn't until two hours (and a few drinks later) that Chris decided to say hello. They spent the rest of the evening laughing and dancing the night away at a country bar in Wrigleyville. Chris later reflected that he felt they were hitting it off when, "I starting telling her my jokes, and she didn't walk away... " The rest was truly history.

After 4 years of dating, Chris still thought he could out-smart Kerstin. He may have gotten away with it too had he not decided to "forget his wallet in the car" . He spent 10 minutes on the phone talking with Kerstin's mother, Scarlett, while Tug (Chris and Kerstin's Dalmatian) incessantly whined by the door. After being interrogated, Chris quickly confessed that he was on the phone with Kerstin's mom - such a give away, right? The rest of the week flew by and on that following Friday night, Chris lay in bed as though it were Christmas Eve. He couldn't contain his excitement and blurted out, "I'm so excited for tomorrow." Kerstin's response was, "What's tomorrow? The Farmer's Market?" The next morning Chris told Kerstin that he wanted to take her and the dogs to a new dog park he found. Kerstin thought this was odd considering she's the ultimate dog mom and would have been well aware of any new dog parks in the area. She went along with it anyway and she and the dogs soon arrived at Belmont Plateau. To the average eye, this just looked like another desolate city park on a cold January morning. Kerstin got out of the car and thought to herself, "If he proposes here, I'm going to kill him." Chris took off to the top of the hill. Meanwhile, Tug had found a used windshield wiper to chew on. When Kerstin hesitantly got to the top of the hill, Chris turned her around and said, "Check out the view." It was a breathtaking view of the city of Philadelphia. When Kerstin turned to face Chris, he was down on one knee. After asking for Kerstin's hand in marriage and Kerstin enthusiastically accepting, he pulled out the box with his grandmother's engagement ring still inside and said, "Here you go." Kerstin made it known that he had to take it out of the box and actually place it on her finger. All of this is to say, his proposal was in true Chris fashion.

Philadelphia holds a special place in both Chris and Kerstin's heart. Their first time visiting together was in May of 2017, which happened to be when Chris decided to profess his love for Kerstin (although Kerstin had professed her love for Chris a few months earlier). This was one of the many firsts for Chris and Kerstin in Philadelphia. Chris' love for Philadelphia developed at young age starting with his father taking him to watch the Philadelphia Eagles and his hero, Donovan McNabb, play football. Philadelphia is also significant to Chris' mother's side of the family as Anne's parents were natives of the city. Anne's mother grew up in Germantown where her grandfather owned a corner store. Anne's father is a Villanova alum who hails from a boyhood in Conshohocken. Both of Anne's grandparents' houses still stand in Philadelphia today. Chris and Kerstin decided to take a leap of faith and move to Philadelphia together from Chicago in July of 2018 when Chris' job relocated him and Kerstin was offered a killer job opportunity. Clearly Chris and Kerstin enjoyed their time in Philly as they bought their first home together in East Falls in May of 2019.