Brooks and Elly met, of all places, at church.* Brooks was working as a youth minister at Christ Episcopal Church in Charlottesville. Elly had just graduated from UVA and was beginning a year as a fellow at Christ Church. That was fall of 2015, and by winter Brooks and Elly had gone on their first date at the Local. A bit too quickly, Brooks invited Elly on a ski trip, but she forgave him for it. After a more reasonable amount of time, Elly invited Brooks to Floydfest. For his first music festival, Brooks fared well. By the spring of 2017, Brooks and Elly set their sights towards Nashville, and it wouldn't be long after that they set their sights toward marriage. *According to Aziz Ansari in "Modern Romance", only 2% of married couples meet at church nowadays.

In the fall of 2018, Elly thought that Brooks was about to begin ring shopping. Trying to be helpful, she shared her Pinterest boards with Brooks. Two boards. One of ring styles she liked and, more importantly, another of styles she did not like. However, Elly thought wrong. Brooks was not shopping for an engagement ring, because he would give Elly his mother's engagement ring, which Jim gave to Anne 40 years ago and which Jim's mother wore before that. In October, Brooks made a dinner reservation at Margot (without quite understanding the difference between Margot and Marche). He hustled Elly out the door to catch their Uber, but then he "forgot something inside." After a couple long minutes, Brooks brought Elly back inside, where she found a small pouch wrapped around Cooper's collar. In it she found a letter from Cooper asking, "Mom, will you marry Dad?" and the Tate family ring. She said yes.