What initially seemed like a typical gloomy spring night turned out to be anything but. Chris and his roommate Mark decided to throw a house party to break up the monotony of Chicago’s seemingly never-ending winter. After picking up all of the essentials, including the especially critical matching bright yellow T-shirts, everything was ready to go. A few miles north, Melissa finally relented to her friends who had been imploring her to join them at Mark’s party. We’ll never know whether or not claims that Mark had a highly eligible roommate influenced her decision. That night, after a few particularly tense drinking games, someone caught Chris’s eye standing in his kitchen. After facilitating an introduction, Chris and Melissa finally met and the rest of the night was a whirlwind. They shared jokes, danced to Wagon Wheel and talked about their families, each knowing that they’d met someone special. After that night, the rest was history. Chris took the first big leap when he asked Melissa to join him for a weekend in the Bahamas while he was working there. Melissa took the second, inviting him to one of her best friend’s weddings. A few years later, Melissa took another big leap, agreeing to move across the country to Boston for Chris’s graduate school. On August 4, 2019, they committed to each other forever when Chris asked Melissa to marry him.