Join us to renew our vows and have a wedding celebration during the summer of 2026! We'll host a party on the 7th anniversary of our secret elopement. For details, see our wedding schedule page. For the story of how we got here, keep scrolling down. Ten years together makes for many stories.

Mark was my first online date, so I assumed that first dates normally included natural chemistry and easy conversation. Still a little skeptical of Tinder’s reputation, I friend zoned Mark, which was great as we became fast friends and he still cooked amazing feasts for my roommate, Sally, and I. At the time, I had an empty room in my house and Mark couldn't resist asking if I was open to having another roommate. Mark loves cooking, and I am very food motivated so it was a simple decision. After living together as friends and roommates for a few months, we semi-awkwardly morphed into dating on 3/21/17 (three years before our original wedding date).

Dating in Durham was a lot of fun for both Mark and I. Even though neither of us is from North Carolina, we fell in with an amazing group of friends that made it feel like home. Here are some of our favorite Durham memories: -Trying to convince our third roommate, Buck, that we were actually dating and not just laying the ground work for an epic April Fool's joke; -I loved coming home from work to delicious gourmet dinners fresh out of the oven. (Mark's stint in culinary school helped win my heart;) -Raising meat bunnies, chickens, and starting an ambitious front yard garden. The 7:1 pet to person ratio kept our house interesting! -Backpacking 300 miles of the Appalachian Trail; that means we've got just over 1800 to go! -Walking the pups around Huron street together every morning before work.

After dating for about a year and a half, Mark moved to Sarasota to work at New College of Florida. Our relationship in Durham had been wonderful, but also very convenient, so we decided to take some space to figure out what we each wanted individually. Our "break" quickly turned into a distance relationship. I quit my job at the EPA to pursue a graduate program and selected one just an hour commute from Sarasota.

Mark had a ring made for Chelsea in North Hampton, MA at a locally owned jewelry co-op that he knew would hold up against all her hobbies, including gardening, painting, and wielding power tools. Mark planned an entire proposal day, which included a trip to the Dali Museum, kayaking through mangroves, a sunset beach walk, and a high end dinner at Beach Bistro. He proposed after the sunset version of the double rainbow on the beach. There was a cloud just above the horizon, so the sun rose upside down out of the cloud, and then set over the gulf. Between the sunset, the ring, and the proposal, it was all a bit overwhelming at first. (I had to clarify that by "okay," I really meant "yes!") After the February proposal, we planned to get married the following March in Sarasota.

On July 17, 2019, Chelsea and Mark went to the Sarasota Courthouse to tie the knot. We wanted to get the marital paperwork out of the way (and save on in-state tuition and health insurance). Despite overly-logical intentions, they had a beautiful wedding ceremony. It was just the two of us, a random but excellent photographer that we hired the day before, and the clerk on staff that day. We wanted our pending March celebration to be our actual wedding so we didn't tell anyone about the elopement.

Most of us remember where we were when the COVID 19 pandemic shut everything down. Our lives were freeze framed, and slowly (over a few years) thawed back to life. For Mark and I, the shutdown occurred days before our wedding. We had our friends and hired help over to talk through final wedding logistics, our guest room/office was filled to the brim with decorations and alcohol, and we had just baked our wedding cake. The pandemic killed our wedding celebration and left us in a party purgatory for a few years. We count ourselves lucky that our wedding was our biggest loss. We are even more grateful that through the quarantine, our marriage strengthened.

Since 2020, we have been to tons of weddings and our lives have kept going on. We had a baby, moved to three more states and pivoted careers. Along the way, Chelsea has brainstormed countless different wedding scenarios. Our lives are full and we are grateful. And, I recognize that a marriage celebration is still a life experience that is important for me to have. This one will be different than the Sarasota wedding we originally planned--although we will likely keep some elements of it in homage. The central wedding elements that are important to us these days are: - A public recognition of our marriage and commitment to each other for friends and family - A gathering of people important to us that still want to celebrate after 7 years - Quality time with old friends (through hikes, coffee, drinks + meals, and water time) in the days leading up to and after the wedding - A good meal (maybe with a few toasts) So, that's what we offer! If those things are worth a trip out to you, we invite you to celebrate with us in Jackson, NH on July 16, 2026. We recognize that we've picked a highly inconvenient (albeit very special to us) location. Please save the date if a mountain getaway and low-key outdoor dinner + bonfire sound like your type of fun summer trip. We'd love to see you but don't want anyone to feel overstretched to come out. We'll happily accept a celebratory visit anytime in Jackson, or in the much more conveniently located New Jersey :) More details to follow...