We're getting married!

Chris and I grew up one block away from each other in Hawthorne, NJ. We both went to the town library & pool, and rode our bikes around town but never officially met. Chris played piano and guitar at my Grandma's church (Rockpoint Community Church where we are getting married!), and I do have some memories of a cute blonde boy there. We were 15 years old when we officially met as camp counselors at Crossroads Summer camp, a ministry of Rockpoint. I hadn’t planned on having a summer job, but someone from the church called me unexpectedly and offered me a camp counselor position on the spot because they were short-staffed. I quickly fell in love with Crossroads and met so many great friends there. Among them was Chris (spoiler alert I fell in love with him too!). We got to know each other over years of working together at camp, but we didn't really hit it off until we started working together on building the summer drama program back up again. I directed the shows, and Chris ran the tech. I looked forward to the 2-3 weeks he spent as a drama counselor every summer, and we bonded over many late nights programming lights and making mic scripts (he even volunteered to help me paint sets a few times, something most light & sound designers would never do!)

Emily and I quickly fell into a familiar pattern at camp. At the beginning of every summer, we promised each other that we were just going to be friends. And every year, without fail, by about week seven of camp, we were once again confessing our feelings for each other. This cycle repeated itself six summers in a row, but long distance, breakups, or wrong timing always got in the way. As the years went on, I started spending more and more time working in the drama department, which of course meant spending more time with Emily. Late nights at camp, long rehearsals, and shared responsibilities only made it harder to ignore what I felt for her. Watching her work with the kids and lead the summer shows made my feelings for her grow even more, and we were a great team in everything we did together. Our end-of-summer confessions became a running tradition, but something finally changed after the summer of 2021. We stayed in touch throughout the fall, talking regularly and looking forward to Thanksgiving break when she would be home!

I worked up the courage to ask Chris if he wanted to hang out when I was home for Thanksgiving and he said yes! Our first “date” was going to see “Porgy and Bess” at the Metropolitan Opera House. We went to California Pizza kitchen first and then held hands on the midnight bus back to NJ. I was over the moon, but worried about the long distance. We kept talking when I went back to Calvin and then saw each other as much as we could over Christmas Break. We made it official in a Dunkin parking lot (so romantic!) on January 2nd despite my concerns about long distance. The next year and a half of dating was a blur of late-night FaceTime calls, handwritten letters, and endless photo updates about our days. We counted down to every visit. Chris made three trips to Grand Rapids that year, coming to see my shows and meet all my Calvin friends. We saw each other about every other month, and those weekends together still stand out as some of our favorite memories, but saying goodbye was always the hardest part. In the fall of my junior year at Calvin, I decided to graduate early. I knew I wanted to pursue theatre, largely in part due to Chris’ encouragement and belief in me, and Calvin wasn’t able to offer me the experience I wanted. Moving back to New Jersey felt like the right choice: it brought me closer to the heart of the theatre world, and to Chris. We worked one final summer at camp together, and it was everything I had ever wanted from all my camp summers with Chris! We spent every second together working on the show and using our free time checking off our summer bucket list.

Over the next few years of dating, it became increasingly clear that Emily was the one. We spent so much of our time working on shows together, not only at Crossroads, but also at StageWorks and Roundtable, and when we weren’t in rehearsal, our favorite moments were spent at the beach, hiking, or watching one of our comfort shows. I realized that no matter what we were doing, every second I spent with Emily was the best part of my life! When it came time to plan the proposal, life was especially hectic. I had just gotten a new job, we had started looking at houses (with absolutely no intention of buying yet until we fell in love with Sherman Ave), and we were both deep in grad school and summer work. I managed to coordinate both of our families’ schedules to plan a small engagement party on August 2nd, which meant that had to be the day I proposed. As luck would have it, we closed on the house on August 1st, and I picked up the ring that very same day. I enlisted Abi to help photograph the moment and scout out the location with me and then it was time. Naturally, several things almost went wrong: PSE&G shut off the electricity to the house, causing me to go full Karen on their emergency line; Emily decided to deep-clean the fridge for whatever reason that morning, almost completely ruining the shirt I planned to wear; and Emily nearly spilled her entire coffee on her white skirt during the drive up. Despite all the anxiety of the day, the best moment of my life (so far) finally arrived, I asked Emily to be my wife and she said yes! When we returned home, our families surprised her with a beautifully decorated house (as beautiful as it could be, considering we had folding tables, folding chairs, and absolutely no furniture yet). We are so excited for this next chapter in our lives, and could not be more grateful to all the support and love we have surrounding us as we start our life together.