November 1st, 2025 Visit all tabs for more wedding day info!

We first crossed paths in Hawai‘i in 2017. Chantelle was working at the Four Seasons Ko’Olina, and James, then a corporate chef, was there on a work trip. We met briefly in passing, but one evening, the closing crew headed to Monkeypod Kitchen for drinks. We were both the first to arrive and sat at the bar, getting to know each other —that’s where we officially met. Sometime after James left Hawai‘i, Chantelle was on a work trip in L.A. and reached out to James for help with a restaurant reservation. That small moment reconnected us, and by the summer of 2018, we were officially a couple. By December, we were both living in Minneapolis, ready to take on a new life in the city together. Since then, we’ve planted our roots—adopting our dog, Jax, in 2020, buying our first home in 2021, and starting new careers: James as a tech entrepreneur and Chantelle in healthcare. Our days are filled with house projects (mostly James), spoiling our dog baby, restaurant date nights, and plenty of chicken parm (again, mostly made by James).

We took a trip up north to Getaway Cabins in Kettle River, Minnesota, for what Chantelle thought was James’ birthday weekend. It's a beautiful, quiet location in the woods we'd been talking about going to for a while. We were sitting by the fire enjoying our long awaited time away from the city when James went into the cabin to grab some champagne and came back with the ring…