March 1st 2019, Elle was working at her former job at a Creperie in the Ferry Market in New Hope when James walked in after a job interview. Dressed in a suit, he caught her eye right away. Little did he know, they had a mutual friend, Amanda who was a vendor in the Market and had actually shown Elle pictures of James on social media the week before suggesting him as a good match for her. James was also instantly interested in Elle, as he hadn’t seen her there before, even though he was a regular customer. After some flirtatious looks were exchanged between the pair, James said goodbye to Amanda and left with his friends. He then reached out to Amanda later that evening to get Elle’s contact information and sent her a message. After talking to each other for just a few hours, it became clear that they had both found something special and the rest is history!

James decided it was time to ask Elle to marry him when they went on their yearly Ocean City trip with James’s family. Leading up to the trip, James arranged for a photographer to suprise them on the beach on that Thursday. Unfortunately, the photographer became ill and had to cancel. Scrambling to find someone to capture the moment, James started calling every local beach photographer that he could with no luck. He then decided to lean into the fun side of their relationship, as they enjoy dressing up for the Renaissance Faire, Halloween costume contests and other events and thought of going to the Old Time Photo studio on the boardwalk. Sweating bullets, he made sure that he could set up a signal with the photographer while Elle changed into her costume so that he would know the proposal was coming. Dressed in a red American Fronteir dress and positioned on top of a piano, Elle looked down to see James pop the question in his top hat and cumberbund. After the proposal, a man came up to the newly engaged couple and shared that 20 years ago to the day he proposed in the same way to his wife and they are still very happy together and have two kids. James and Elle can only hope to continue their love and celebrate with their friends and family on their wedding day.