Chad was born in Washington (state, not DC) in 1989. Ellie was born in Rhode Island (no, that is not a part of New York) in 1995.

Chad and Ellie both started working at the engineering firm Jensen Hughes in 2017. That year the company was trying something new and any Associates who were hired in 2017 were asked to go to the company headquarters in Baltimore for a 4 day "Bootcamp" to meet each other and do some trainings. On the first night of this Bootcamp, everyone had arrived at the hotel from the airport and were invited to a Welcome Dinner in the hotel's restaurant. Ellie grabbed one of the remaining empty seats and ended up sitting directly across from Chad. Anyone who knows Ellie knows that she loves to meet and talk to new people.... and anyone who knows Chad knows that he is a little more reserved and quiet at first (to be fair, Chad was also very jet lagged at this point too). The two started to get to know each other at that first dinner, and Ellie continued to try drawing Chad out of his shell over the following three days.

Chad and Ellie kept in touch after the Bootcamp and found out that they actually had a ton in common! Family and music had a huge place in both of their hearts. Both were raised in very rural areas and loved being "in the middle of nowhere". Chad grew up raising cows and Ellie always loved her flocks of chickens. It seemed like their interests, upbringing, and where they saw themselves in the future aligned almost too well. The more they talked, the more they realized that they had to figure out where the relationship was going since they lived on opposite sides of the country.

By November, they decided that they needed to see if this would be sustainable in the long run. They had to start making the call of whether they were going to make it official or to move on. Chad had sworn he would never do a long distance relationship again (look where that got him...), but something was pulling the two together. After much discussion, Ellie booked a plane ticket to go out for a weekend in January to visit Chad and talk about things in person. Ellie's parents knew that her cousin (Stephen) lived within an hour of where Chad lived and he was on standby to pick her up if things didn't work out (gotta have an exit strategy!). Ellie and Chad both love craft beer, so the weekend was kicked off going to a brewpub... this was their first real date and Stephen was there to happily third wheel. (When Chad was in the bathroom, Stephen made sure to let Ellie know he thought Chad was a good guy, but that if she wanted to leave with Stephen instead; just give him a signal.) They ended up Facetiming both Ellie's parents and Stephen's parents during dinner... Chad was such a good sport about it and it gave him a taste of the family! At the end of the weekend, Chad and Ellie decided that it was worth it to both of them to take the "hard road" and keep seeing each other.

And so, Chad and Ellie continued flying back and forth from Washington to Rhode Island (racking up lots of Southwest points along the way). They were able to see each other about every month and a half and were very grateful that their jobs allowed them to work "remotely" out of each other's offices for 1-2 week periods at a time, making the most out of their visits. During this time, there were a couple attempts to transfer work locations so that they could end the long distance, but something always ended up derailing those plans. It was not easy, but there is truth in the old saying "distance makes the heart grow fonder", and besides, they had an exciting week and a half trip to Italy planned for April 2020 to look forward to!

Chad flew out to Rhode Island mid-March to celebrate Ellie's Grandma's birthday. There had been some talk about a virus spreading throughout China, but at the time, we didn't realize how much it would change our "normal". That all became clear a few days after Chad flew in - the country went into lockdown and Chad's 1 week in Rhode Island turned into a 3 month stay! As was mentioned before, Chad and Ellie were planning on going to Italy with Ellie's sister Steph in April. Little did Ellie know, Chad was scheming with Steph and had a whole proposal planned out for when they went to the top of Brunelleschi's Dome in Florence. Things work out in mysterious ways though. As borders started to shut down and the situation in Italy got worse and worse, the trip to Italy was cancelled. But Chad had a trick (or a ring) up his sleeve. He had brought the engagement ring with him to Rhode Island to show Ellie's parents and ask for their blessing prior to the vacation. Chad adapted to the new circumstances everyone had found themselves in and started figuring out a new plan to propose. He had three goals in mind: 1. He wanted to surprise Ellie. 2. He wanted to have pictures of the moment and the reaction. 3. He knew Ellie would not be happy if those pictures memorialized the ratty sweatpants and messy bun she had been favoring during the first few WFH weeks. First step was to talk to Ellie's parents, so Chad let Ellie's mom know he needed to talk to them without Ellie around. Ellie's mom sent her and Steph off to get groceries... and that part of the mission was complete (other than a few calls from Ellie interrupting the conversation while she checked on things with the grocery list). Step two was to brainstorm with Ellie's siblings on ways to surprise and trick her (since they had 25 years of experience doing just that). The third step was to implement the plan and make Ellie think it was her idea....

Steph works at a little pottery studio (Peter Pots - go check them out!) and sometimes helps with promotional pictures for their social media accounts. This was a key detail in the deception of Ellie. Steph came to Ellie to see if she could take some pictures of Ellie and Chad with some new mugs and covers that they were selling. Steph asked Ellie to check with Chad and make sure he was ok with it. So Ellie went over to Chad and started talking about it and Chad pretended to be reluctant, mentioning that she knew how much he didn't like pictures. Ellie (totally oblivious that this was all Chad's idea) told Chad that he needed to stop complaining and that they were going to do this to help Steph out. She was playing right into their hands... Steph told Ellie that she was going to need to change out of sweatpants and into something less "grubby" (her words), and Ellie left the room without realizing it was all a set up. Steph had set up an area under the big magnolia tree with a bench for the pictures, she handed out the mugs and covers to Ellie and Chad, and started by taking some regular pictures of the two sitting on the bench. Steph then called out to Ellie and told her to "pretend to social distance" and sit on the far end of the bench and look away from Chad while he did the same on the other side. After a few shots Ellie asked Steph if she could turn back around, and when she did, Chad was in front of her on one knee. The ring had been hidden in his mug! Chad looked up at Ellie, and Ellie looked at Chad in utter confusion and was speechless (for once) before shouting "Is this for real?!" thinking this was some elaborate prank that was being pulled for the photoshoot. Chad started laughing and asked "Will you marry me?" at which point Ellie said yes and started sobbing happy tears. That was when Ellie turned around to find that her parents and one of her brothers were standing on the deck behind them watching the entire thing, and laughing at her reaction.