1997: Chelsea & her sisters are in front of the TV, watching VH1 when 3 long-haired teen boys appear, singing a new song, "MMMBoр." The girls were instantly, permanently Hanson fans. Their bedroom door? A shrine of TEENBEAT clippings. (Yes, that's a deep cut.) Some childhood obsessions fade; Chelsea's love for Hanson didn't. When she met Josh, who liked a few songs, she did what any true fan would do: converted him into a Hanson die-hard. Josh & Chelsea have been to more concerts than they can count. Hanson shows? Easily 20+. (Who's counting when your relationship has a soundtrack?). When Hanson announced their UNDERNEATH: EXPERIENCE tour to celebrate 20 years of one of their best albums, they didn't hesitate & got tickets for Oct. 18-19, 2024, perfect for their 19th anniversary weekend. They're Hanson.net fan club members (of course). One perk? Meet & greet entries. Years ago, Josh got lucky & met the band. This time, everyone hoped it'd be Chelsea's turn. Plot twist: Josh won, Chelsea didn't. Womp womp. Josh was thrilled but bummed (meet & greets can't be transferred). Chelsea, in true supportive-partner fashion, was happy for him (while sighing dramatically, obviously). Here's where it gets good: Josh had been trying to propose for months, but the universe kept getting in the way: ring delays, surprise COVID, you name it. When the tour popped up and the meet & greet happened? LIGHTBULB. He packed the ring & brought it along. Hope: get a photo of it with the band. Dream: propose in the crowd during one of their favorite songs. Issue: Hanson played both of his planned proposal songs on night 1, but he held onto the ring & the dream, trusting the moment would come. Hanson shows are an event. Night 1 ends with a Taylor Hanson DJ dance party (yes, really). On day 2, Josh surprised Chelsea with their best friend & fellow Hanson concert buddy, Shawn! Chelsea was floored. Josh left early for the meet & greet, and they met up afterward. When she finally saw Josh inside, he seemed... twitchy. Nervous. She assumed it was meet & greet nerves. (It wasn't). Josh had been documenting the ring's journey: on his run, getting Chelsea's favorite coffee, at the venue. He even told the other fan club winners his plan & they encouraged him: tell the band. Then it happened... Josh showed Isaac, Taylor & Zac the ring. Their response? "Let's get her on stage." The plan: a certain song would be the secret cue. Mid-concert, it played & Josh slipped away to "use the bathroom." Highly suspicious behavior for Josh at a Hanson show. But Chelsea, lost in the music, didn't question it. Then Shawn urgently pulled her to the side of the stage. She panicked: was Josh hurt? Did he fall? Win a contest? The lights shifted & Isaac took the mic: "We've got a spontaneous special guest: Joshua Aker." Chelsea blinked. What? Josh walk onstage like he belonged there, like he & Isaac were old friends. Isaac smiled: "I hear you've got someone with you..." And just like that, Chelsea was led onstage in front of thousands... As she stood under the lights, piecing it together, Isaac continued: "This has apparently been brewing almost as long as Underneath has been alive & I think Josh has a question he'd like to ask..." Josh dropped to one knee; Isaac beside him, Taylor & Zac in the wings. The literal soundtrack of their lives watching it unfold. The crowd roared. Chelsea, through happy tears, said: "YES, PLEASE"! Isaac played their song, "For Your Love," by request. He got the entire crowd to sing along; thousands of voices joining a song that already meant the world to them, now elevated into a once-in-a-lifetime anthem. It was perfect, magic, the best night of their lives - the most Chelsea & Josh engagement story imaginable. A million thank-yous to the band, the friends & fans who helped pull it off... and to Hanson, for making space on their stage for C+J's love story to shine even brighter, not just letting them be part of the concert, but of their lives.

Chelsea had moved to Ohio from her home state of Iowa, and had been working at a factory for about a year; Josh had taken a summer job before college at the same factory. Chelsea was a machine operator and Josh was sorting parts at the machine "next door". Separated by a large rack of parts, Chelsea was singing, when she heard a "shuttttt uppppp" from an unknown male beyond the rack. She stopped the machine and walked over and said "who said that!?", finding out it was the cute, long-curly-haired blonde she'd seen on break just a short while earlier. Details afterwards are hazy, but it most likely involved Chelsea getting flustered from the mix of attraction and embarrassment. She later received a "delivery" from a forklift operator with a note from the cute blonde that said "I lost my number, can I have yours?". Chelsea didn't reply, and Josh (the cute blonde), cornered her after work and got it! He then started working out at the YMCA at the same time as Chelsea, and won her over with his treadmill prowess and surprise kisses in the shallow pool. Josh assumed him and Chelsea were an official couple until one fateful morning in the fall, while having breakfast at Bob Evans before josh went back to college for the week. He was talking to Chelsea about how she was his girlfriend, and Chelsea informed him that she didn't remember being asked to be his girlfriend. And so, on that magical date, Josh officially asked Chelsea to be his. Chelsea insists that was October 17, 2005, while Josh stands by it having been October 18th, 2005. Since the actual date is less important than the fact that from that moment on, Chelsea and Josh started their life together, they celebrate both!

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