Welcome To Our Beginning

As the mountains have become such a special place for us, we have decided to have a private and intimate wedding ceremony in the mountains of Colorado. Following our return home, a traditional wedding reception will be held so that everyone we know and love can help us celebrate our marriage. We will be serving dinner, drinks and dessert and we hope you'll stay to dance the night away with us! We will also be saving speeches, our first dance and all other festivities for all of our family and friends to see and enjoy. We hope that you will be able to celebrate and share in the excitement of this new chapter of life with us! Love, Tommy + Ellen

Tommy and Ellen met in January of 2016 in their Sociology class at M|State in Moorhead, MN. On the first day of class, Tommy walked into the room and asked Ellen if he could sit down next to her, though the classroom was nearly empty. With hesitation and confusion, Ellen reluctantly replied with a "sure", and he sat down right next to her. Over the course of the next couple weeks Tommy tried to make small talk with Ellen numerous times, but she wasn't interested. Eventually, Ellen had missed a couple days of class, and Tommy had asked her if she wanted the notes she missed when she was gone. Ellen, playing hard to get, replied to Tommy with " No, that's okay, they're online", dismissing Tommy's attempt. Time and time again Tommy's conversations were shot down and it was clear to see that Ellen did not seem interested. But that all changed very quickly once Tommy made mention of his new golden retriever puppy and Ellen was sold. The two began to talk daily, hang out outside of class, and spend more and more time together. After a couple months, Tommy decided it was time to make their relationship official. Tommy took Ellen for a walk by the river and asked her to be his girlfriend with a little help from his golden retriever puppy - Kyah. Tommy had Kyah retrieve for Ellen a crumpled up ball of paper, on which he wrote: "Ellen, be my girlfriend? Kiss me = YES, Anything else = NO". It was safe to say that Tommy got his victory kiss and a new girlfriend that day.

As Tommy and Ellen have always shared a love for travel, it has become something special for them to experience together. Their favorite places to visit in the summer usually include somewhere with a mountainous terrain, snow capped peaks, and alpine lakes. They have been to many beautiful places and some of their favorites include Glacier National Park, Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks, Rocky Mountain National Park and the beautiful mountains of Colorado - where Tommy proposed. This last summer they planned a week long camping trip to Colorado. They took in breathtaking (literally) views and traveled all over north central Colorado. They explored Rocky Mountain National Park and many different National Forests and every night entailed a new camp site where ever the wind had blown them that day - making it a true adventure. On the fifth day of the trip, they ended up in a little campsite right outside of Crested Butte, CO. It had been raining for a good part of that day which had put a damper on their hiking plans for that afternoon. Eventually they realized that the rain wasn't letting up anytime soon, so they decided to head to Crested Butte for dinner. A fun and tasty dinner was had at a local Mexican restaurant called BONEZ followed by some exploring of the little ski town even though the rain persisted. As they were driving back up the mountain pass before dark, the rain suddenly stopped and the clouds parted way to reveal the most beautiful, fiery, and luminescent sunset on the mountainside. In awe, they pulled over to capture the moment. Tommy had tasked Ellen with manning the camera, which gave him enough time to prepare the proposal. When Ellen had finally finished capturing her last shots, she turned around to see Tommy down on one knee, with a ring in hand, and saying the words "will you marry me?" Ellen without hesitation, and eyes welled up with tears, joyfully accepted Tommy's perfect proposal.