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leavesleaves

Jill Reavis

and

Zach Ottum

January 17, 2026

St. Thomas, USVI

How We Met

We met on the dating app Bumble. Despite Jill always being anti-app, she downloaded it after some encouragement from a friend as a soon-to-be Chicagoan. Jill didn't know how to adjust the settings and, on the day she downloaded the app, inadvertently found herself locked in on a 29-year-old named Zach 49.8 miles away whose only listed interests were sports, concerts, and gym. He quickly showed he was someone special a few days in. We spent 7 hours talking on the phone across two days, and by that next weekend Zach had planned a first date of taking Jill to all his favorite spots in St. Charles (read: Duke's). Since the first date, we've spent almost every day together. We've clocked hundreds of hour-long drives from DeKalb to Chicago and kept the Illinois tollway in business. We've been lucky to travel all around the U.S.--Seattle, Kiawah, Arizona--plus many trips to Wisconsin and Indy. Escaping to the beach has become a theme, between two trips to Mexico and one to Jamaica last year. Our engagement photos were taken on a surprise trip to Ireland for Zach's 30th birthday, where he was also gifted with learning how to drive on the left side of rural country roads for 8 days. Now, we're very happily more settled in our new home in St. Charles--back where it all started. :) It's been a wild journey so far, and we can't wait for what's next.

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