Well, we both swiped right! We connected using the once popular dating app, Bumble. After a few weeks of chatting back and forth, our first date was at a dog park in Waterford, CT on July 3, 2019. Lisa brought her best buddy, Zoë, and Jeff conveniently commandeered his parents’ dog, Mocha. Sure, he had to dodge questions from his parents about taking their tired pup. And yes, Lisa did choose a dog park with absolutely zero trees on what ended up being the hottest day of the whole summer. Still, neither of them would change a thing about that day. Since that date, we've been “off and running!” Our first summer and following months together were filled with record shops, river walks, overseas texting, picnics and dinner dates, trips to the beach, and countless coffee runs. The following year presented battling the pandemic together and owning our first home as a couple. We're on this journey side by side, so what's next?!

After just three dates in the summer of 2019, Jeff left to travel abroad for two weeks. After touching down in Frankfurt, he discovered an iron footbridge over the River Main. Traditionally, couples engrave their names onto padlocks, lock them to the bridge, and toss the keys into the river. Jeff ran to the nearest train station, bought a padlock and walked back to the footbridge. He found a broken bottle top on the way and engraved “Jeff + Lisa” onto the lock. He found an open spot, locked his lock, and threw one of the padlock’s two keys into the River - saving the other key for “one day”. Fast forward: two years, two moves and one pandemic later… "One day" Jeff convinced Lisa to go out for an end-of-the-school-year drink in downtown Mystic. After one anxious round of cocktails, he waited for Lisa to suggest that they walk down to their spot on the Mystic River. Once at the dock, he showed Lisa the second key he’d saved from Germany and asked her to throw her key into the water. While she turned to face the river, he got down on one knee. And when Lisa turned around, Jeff popped the question.