It all started with a very persuasive correspondence from Francesca on Bumble in January 2021. Tim was swept off his feet with Francesca’s first message: “hey, how’s it going”. With a lot to work with, Tim, a Boston College alum, followed up with a dig on Francesca’s alma mater, Notre Dame. After the provocation, Francesca started coming out of her shell. She asked Tim what he did for work. At the time, Tim was a fundraiser in the athletics department at University of Pennsylvania. It was a lightbulb moment for Francesca as she had just coordinated with Penn Athletics on a COVID-19 fundraiser. Little did she know that this had caused Tim much unneeded stress as his office was gearing up for a different fundraising initiative of their own at the same time. After commenting, “THAT WAS YOU?!?”, he very smoothly transitioned the conversation. Tim mentioned he was more than happy to help her craft a thank you note over dinner to his colleague who had helped her.

Nature had other plans as a blizzard made them postpone their originally planned first date. Luckily for Tim, Francesca was willing to pivot to the following Tuesday, February 2nd, 2021 for a dinner at Talula’s Garden in downtown Philadelphia (the inspiration for naming their sheepadoodle Talula!). Tim was instantly stunned by Francesca’s beauty and was blown away by how easily the conversation flowed. Francesca loved that Tim had a passion for reading and seemed kind. After enjoying an amazing meal, Tim penguin walked Francesca home to safety through the icy sidewalks of Washington Square Park. After she was safely inside, he proceeded to his Uber where he called his sister Kristen to tell her he might have just found the one.

Tim and Francesca traveled to Negril, Jamaica in March 2023 to celebrate their two year anniversary. After three days in Jamaica jam packed with zip lining, a couples massage, snorkeling, jerk chicken, waterfalls, the beach, and pina coladas, Tim surprised Francesca on Thursday, March 9th with a private catamaran tour. As they prepared for dinner that night, Francesca questioned Tim as to why he was getting so dressed up. Tim in no way got flustered and definitely provided a very convincing alibi. As Tim walked Francesca to dinner, he took a detour to sit her down on the resort’s rock wall overlooking the water. He pulled out a gift box and presented it to his favorite avid reader. Inside was a book that detailed all the reasons why Tim loved Francesca. It left them both a little misty-eyed. The last page instructed Francesca to take Tim’s hand and follow him to the bridge situated a few paces away. Once they were on the bridge, Tim turned around, got on one knee, and asked Francesca to marry him. Francesca said yes and jumped into Tim’s arms, almost knocking the ring into the water below.