Due to a weird series of events, we have access to a kickass wedding venue in early fall. We've decided to go for it! It's short notice and an admittedly crazy idea, but we hope you can come! We also completely understand and sincerely have no hard feelings if it's not in the cards for you right now. For details, see our wedding schedule page. Get ready to scroll for the backstory. Eight years, 2 kids, 5 states, and countless animals makes for many stories...

Mark was Chelsea's first online date. With some healthy Tinder skepticism, she quickly friend-zoned Mark, who instead became a fast friend and roommate. Our third (more difficult) roommate brought us together and we semi-awkwardly morphed into dating on 3/21/17, three years before our originally scheduled wedding date, 3/21/20.

Here are some of the highlights from the early days of our relationship: -Chelsea loved coming home from work to Mark's cooking—food is the way to her heart -Raising meat bunnies, chickens, and starting an ambitious front yard garden. The 7:1 pet to person ratio kept our house interesting! -Section backpacking the Appalachian Trail. -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. We took a break in our relationship, when Mark moved, then decided to make it work. Chelsea quit her job at the EPA to pursue a graduate program in Florida.

Mark planned an entire proposal day, which included a trip to the Dali Museum, kayaking through mangroves, a sunset beach walk, and a fancy dinner. 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. Mark had a speech prepared that included his hope to "hike through life together," which is just what we've been doing since then. 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, we had a beautiful wedding ceremony. We wanted our pending March 2020 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 over to talk through final wedding logistics, our guest room was filled to the brim with decorations and alcohol, and we had just baked our wedding cake. When the airports and borders shut down, it was clear that our wedding had to be shut down too. We count ourselves lucky that our wedding was our biggest loss. We are even more grateful that through the quarantine, our marriage strengthened.

Around the time Chelsea graduated with her Masters in Environmental Science and Policy, Mark got a fellowship at USC. Even though Chelsea knew that USC was a really snobby school, we decided it was no worse than Duke, and a worthwhile opportunity to live in LA for a year. We loaded up the EV with our 3 dogs and stuff and drove across the country to the apartment that we shared with Mark's brother, Mike. We spent weekends on local trips and hikes. During that year, Chelsea got pregnant with Theo, who got to visit 13 National Parks in utero!

Previously, back in Florida, we had little control of where we lived and saw lots of moves were in our future. We also lived in irrational fear of becoming Florida man. To escape the heat and crazies of Florida during summers, we decided to pursue a home-base in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This idea quickly escalated into the prolonged project of building a house. When our yearlong lease in California ended, this is where we moved, driving, again, across the country in our EV sedan with our 3 dogs, all our stuff, and now a 7 month pregnancy. Theo was born up north and we returned to the mountains for the birth of Cedar, almost exactly 2 years later.

When Theo was 6 months old, we moved to Highland Park, NJ, where Mark has his job as a professor at Rutgers. Chelsea is pursuing a teaching credential at Rutgers with the plan of going to teach when Theo + Cedar go to school. We love it here. Chelsea always says that NJ has everything you could want, but the best of nothing. It's a good balance. You can get a taste of the beach, the mountains, the city, and the country. Mark, however, has found that NJ does have the best of the dressage world and since moving here, rediscovered his passion for horses. About 2 years ago, Mark got back into riding, which has morphed from a hobby into a second job, and more recently, into an operation requiring a farm facility. Currently, we are in the process of co-buying a horse farm with Mark's business partner. The gorgeous farm comes with a mansion, which we need to immediately sell off. While it's ours, however, we figure we might as well have a wedding!