How did ya'll meet? G: We met through two different dating sites actually. We first got matched on eHarmony and then a few days later on CoffeeMeetsBagel; it's not often you get confirmation like that! C: I never saw the CoffeeMeetsBagel match, so Gabe had a head start on me ;-) Who asked first? G: Well, Chelsea will say I technically asked first, but really she was the one who took the first action by "liking" my profile. I did start the conversation by unknowingly sending 3 different icebreaker questions at the same time...in my defense, the app is dumb that way... C: On eharmony you "like" a match's profile by clicking on a star. Mine was definitely a lucky star. :-D First thoughts? C: I remember three main things standing out to me about his profile: 1: He's actually put in an effort here (SO many profiles have the bare minimum of information entered). 2: He loves Jesus and his family. 3: He plays DnD the same way I play DnD (Interactive story telling game). G: Well...my thought process went something like "huh, someone's interested in me....that's nice...oh look...she loves Jesus...and she likes boardgames...and she plays DnD!" It's a very rare to find someone online that likes those things, loves Jesus, and takes initiative!

So, how long till you guys met? G: A couple of weeks. We started chatting right before Labor Day, but I already had plans to attend a wedding in Chicago. I was secretly hoping the topic of meeting wouldn't come up until after the weekend! I didn't know know how to say "Hey it'd be great to meet in person! I know it's been a couple of weeks, but would you mind waiting a few more? I'm actually in Chicago right now" C: Meanwhile I was wondering if he was ever going to suggest meeting, since so far we had briefly discussed books and musicals but had mostly gone back and forth on DnD characters. (And if he had mentioned that he was out of town but would like to meet once he got back, I would of course have understood and said yes!) What was the first meeting like? C: It was POURING rain!!! I live on a second story apartment with external stairs. I was trying to avoid getting absolutely drenched just getting to the car, so I felt so bad for making him wait, but I definitely sat there until it let up at least a little bit before making a dash for it. Thankfully Gabe is a very patient man. :-) I remember he walked me to my car at the end which I was thankful for since I had missed the right turn in for the coffee place and ended up parking a good half a block away. G: it went well! at least, I like to think it went well. We ended up meeting for coffee at a local place and chatted from 7 till past closing. This became a common theme in upcoming dates Okay, so what was the first actual date like? G: For our first date I bought tickets for us to go see Romeo & Juliet; however, Romeo was intentionally drunk out of his mind! That night spawned many inside jokes for us (including the unicorn ducks that grace this page and tales of riding away on mighty Shadowfax). C: He showed up at my door with flowers and I was really happy to confirm that it was in fact going to be an actual date. Prior to that moment I hoped, but wasn't totally sure.

So, how did you know this was "the one"? G: I don't know if there was any ever "one moment" in time for me. For me, love was always an action to take and I made that decision early on in the relationship, but it wasn't till some time after that I realized that I would much rather spend all my time with Chelsea than with anything I was doing before. C: I had known for quite awhile that Gabe was a man I would quite happily spend the rest of my life with. For me a lot of it was about trust and character and Gabe had both in spades. I then had to just wait patiently while he decided the same thing. ;-) And we're all eager to know, how did it happen? G: well...we had talked previously about doing a trip to see the sunrise on Pennybacker bridge, so we decided to finally plan that down. As it so happens, the ring came in the Tuesday before that, so I spent Wednesday looking for a box and then sat on it till Saturday. That morning I pick her up at waaay too early in the morning on Saturday, October 5th and we went to the 360 overlook. We were early so we got to pick a prime spot. She was sitting down, and I got on one knee and asked as the sun rose over the horizon. I had thought about a speech and everything...but that all kinda went out the window when the moment actually came. C: He had told me back in AUGUST that he was going to propose... sometime before December (insert eye roll emoji here). He had talked to his parents. We had met with my parents. I knew he had ordered a ring! I am NOT as patient as Gabe with certain things and I was wound up like a jack-in-the-box wondering at every major anniversary and special event "If this was it" so one part of me was trying to enjoy the sunrise and another part of me was having an inner dialogue with myself in which I hoped very much that he would propose and another part of me planning an intervention for myself in which I demanded better parameters if he didn't. :'-D He did!!! I said yes!