08/25/2006: Chelsea moves from Sacramento, CA to Los Angeles, CA to attend Loyola Marymount University 05/20/2012: Tim moves from Spring, TX to Los Angeles, CA to begin his career in “the industry” Early June 2012: Chelsea and Tim begin conversing on a (free) dating site Mid-June 2012: Their first date would be on one of the calendar year’s most romantic holidays, Father’s Day, at the Formosa Café. Chelsea met Tim there, wisely recommending the Formosa after Tim had suggested coffee. The text conversation went as follows: CHELSEA: Where would you like to meet? TIM: Give me a sec. Scoping out a few joints. [Tim spends 10 minutes frantically looking up places he has no business suggesting] TIM: How about coffee in Burbank? [15 minutes later] CHELSEA: I don’t drink coffee. TIM: What do you enjoy drinking? CHELSEA: Whiskey. … It was love at first whiskey. Little did Tim know that the area that he had chosen to meet up at was not in the most charming of locations. Chelsea gave Tim three options, and both settled on the Formosa Café.

The Formosa Café happened to be walking distance from Chelsea's apartment. There they’d spend hours drinking Jameson and ginger ales while talking music and family before moseying over to Jones’ for additional rounds of cocktails and conversation. The date ended at Chelsea’s West Hollywood apartment where they watched the season finale of her favorite show at the time “The Killing”. This series was a murder-mystery-drama, during the final episode of which was the reveal of the murderer of a teenage girl. It was the type of show that a couple on their first date had no business watching (and yes, Chelsea cried). “The Killing” was must-see TV for Chelsea, yet she missed the episode’s original airing, resulting in them watching the DVR recording. “The Killing” was also a favorite of Chelsea’s mother, who as it turns out, had a weekly routine in which she and Chelsea would simultaneously watch an episode as it aired and text during commercial breaks. It had been well over three hours since the episode’s initial airing when Chelsea and Tim began watching the recording. Eventually, Chelsea checked her phone to find many missed texts from her mother, who was worried sick wondering why her daughter hadn’t been responding to any phone calls or text messages on the night of her first date with a mysterious Texan. Little did her mother know that Chelsea’s date with the Texan lasted six hours longer than planned, thus beginning what Rod, Chelsea’s grandfather, calls “the slow-moving operation”.

December 2017 marked a very special time in Chelsea’s life, her 30th birthday. Tim knew that he had to go all out in order to commemorate the occasion. The planning process began in August 2017 in which the initial idea was to round up some of her friends from town, rent a van and do a full day of wine tasting. Many variations of a vineyard excursion were considered but eventually a winery in Westlake Village was decided upon. The late start to the Los Angeles wildfire season would put an end to wine tasting altogether. Only one other person knew of Tim’s ultimate plan, Mark, Chelsea’s father. The plan was to not only get people together for a standard run-of-the-mill birthday celebration, but it would be a surprise birthday celebration and impromptu engagement party. Mark had been waiting for an engagement to happen for years (seriously, years - they had been together for almost six years before the engagement) and his feelings towards the long courtship became most evident the day after Thanksgiving 2016. Thanksgiving weather in Sacramento can get pretty chilly, but this particular day after Thanksgiving was wet and frigid. Tim had to see a movie for his podcast and with Chelsea out for the afternoon with her mother, the time was ideal to visit the local cinema. Mark expressed interest in accompanying Tim to the theater despite knowing nothing about the flick they were to see. Being told that it was called ALLIED and a spy-thriller set during WWII was enough to get him on board.

As it turns out, “Allied” was indeed a spy-thriller set during WWII, but it was also (and more so) a steamy romance starring Brad Pitt as a Canadian intelligence officer who meets and falls in love with Marion Cotillard, a French Resistance fighter, while posing as a couple during a mission in Casablanca. After 124 minutes, three love scenes, two gratuitous shots of Brad Pitt’s posterior and the realization that they were closely surrounded by four affectionate couples, the credits began to roll, and they left. The post-movie discussion was light and favorable and no mention of the experience itself was discussed. Tim’s mission for that outing was to see the movie and it was accomplished. Mark’s mission was to find some alone time with Tim to discuss his intentions with his daughter. Unfortunately, Mark had to sit through a Brad Pitt Romance in a stuffy theater with (who he hoped to be) his eventual son-in-law. The movie-going awkwardness subsided just enough during the drive home, allowing room for other conversation: [It begins as Mark and Tim drive down a frosty road en route to the Schwan family home. After two-minutes of silence the car doors abruptly lock, immediately adding a more serious tone to the drive. Tim looks over and sees Mark’s index finger hovering over the ‘lock/unlock’ button on the side door] MARK: I’m locking the door to make sure you don’t jump out. [It ended with a productive discussion where Tim promises that something would happen within a year. Mark slows the car and unlocks the door] MARK: If you’re thinking about jumping out here’s your chance.

A little over a year later, with help from Mark, Lisa, other family members and friends, surprise parties were planned for Friday December 8th and Saturday December 9th. The engagement happened on Friday December 8th when Chelsea got home from work. She opened the front door to a clean apartment; mood lighting provided by the Christmas lights that they hung the weekend before and an assortment of cheeses and crackers. Chelsea took a seat next to Tim on the couch and after some light banter and a glass of wine. Tim handed Chelsea a yellow bubble wrap mailer envelope. Inside was an ornament featuring two snow people, in love, and written underneath, ‘Engaged 2017’. Chelsea stared confusingly at the ornament for five seconds before Tim produced a small box from behind the couch cushion. After a nervously spoken monologue (that they both immediately forgot) Tim opened the box to reveal an engagement ring. All train of thought must’ve stopped there, because Tim sat there holding out the open box, shaking, and it took Chelsea to finally ask, “Are you going to take it out of the box?” and “So are you going to put it on my finger?” to get him to finalize the engagement asking process. It wasn’t until the ring was already on the designated finger before they realized that no formal proposal was made. At this point Tim simply turned to Chelsea, shrugged his shoulders and asked “Marriage?” Her response, both reassuring and to the point, “yeah”. Chelsea was then surprised by her family and friends as she celebrated both her engagement and her 30th. For a girl that never gets surprised, it was a weekend full of them.