CHEERS & BE MARRIED!

While not technically dating, "The Friendship Year" served as the period of time where Madeleine and Jordan first got to know each other as friends. In May 2013, Jordan and his friends from Dallas went to Galveston for a week at the beach. Kat Pressler, one of Jordan’s friends and Madeleine’s Kappa Delta sisters, invited Madeleine to join for a day. Jordan and Madeleine hit it off and have not stopped talking since. Later that summer, Madeleine visited Jordan for a Tim McGraw concert and a date in Dallas. They golfed (poorly), sang songs (poorly), and ate In-N-Out burgers (made poorly), and stole a golf club. Jordan later visited Houston that summer and went to Kemah Boardwalk, where they stole a horseshoe. Summer ended and they went back to their colleges, across the country for their sophomore years. Though not dating, they spent the year talking every day.

Through Summer 2014 - 2016, Madeleine and Jordan’s long distance relationship survived Madeleine being in Washington, D.C. and Austin, TX, while Jordan was in Bloomington, IN, Chicago, IL, and Hong Kong. The benefit of being long distance for so long allowed them to work to build upon the trust they cemented in the past year and added communication, resilience, respect, compromise, Skype, and love. These years were busy, with both Madeleine and Jordan graduating from undergrad (hoosiers > longhorns). In Summer 2016, Madeleine and Jordan decided to close the distance and moved to Chicago. Through 2016 - 2018, Madeleine completed a degree specializing in health policy at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy while Jordan traveled every week for his consulting work with Ernst & Young. These years also saw Jordan’s red beard… nobody was thrilled. In Summer 2018, Madeleine and Jordan moved to New York City with many big changes. Jordan switched to UX design work at EY while Madeleine started in healthcare consulting at Manatt Health. As a couple they continued to learn more about each other, exploring the city and getting used to each other’s strange household quirks. They met new friends and saw old ones too, growing closer to each other all the while. As COVID-19 set in, they were forced to spend every waking moment together. Thankfully the squabbles were minor, the baked goods were warm, the cocktails were cold, and their love was stronger coming out the other side.

Pier 25 is a special place in New York City for Jordan and Madeleine. It is where they sat in Summer 2015, only one year into their relationship and decided they wanted to close the long distance gap and move to Chicago together. It was the first place and time in which they made a big life decision not solely in their own interest, but rather both sacrificing what would be best for them in order to help the other. And so it was there that Jordan knew he wanted to propose. Madeleine had always said she wanted a private engagement and Jordan was set on giving her just that, despite Pier 25 being a very public park. As COVID-19 forced many people inside, Jordan and Madeleine went on socially distanced night-walks to avoid the sunset crowds. On six different walks, Jordan had the ring in his pocket. Finally on a night-walk on May 5th, 2020, there were four lucky minutes in which Madeleine and Jordan had Pier 25 all to themselves. Jordan got down on one knee, Madeleine said yes, and on a Tuesday in a pandemic, they were engaged.