Max saw Ellie's high school graduation picture on the "JBU Bound" Instagram page and told his family he thought she was pretty. According to Max, Ellie wouldn't notice when he waved to her on campus. According to Ellie, she was probably just really focused.

Ellie and Max both studied abroad in Northern Ireland in the spring of 2023. They became good friends as they shared their testimonies sitting in the library, editing each others' essays. They left Northern Ireland that April as friends, but came back to campus in August, curious about each other's summers.

After some encouragement from Holly, who knew that Ellie thought he was cute, Max texted Ellie, "Hey, you wanna grab coffee and catch up sometime next week??" and immediately threw his phone across the room.

This first nervous, caffeinated coffee chat at Pour Jons led to a first date, where Max picked Ellie up for dinner. He made her close her eyes, and she was surprised when she opened them to see his house, 3 minutes away from campus. "It was super hard to get a reservation here, it's usually fully booked," Max said, opening the door to a candlelight pasta dinner.

Ellie and her friends moved into the same house after Max and friends moved out, and 1 year and 7 months later, Ellie opened the door of her house to the same candlelight setup.

but this time, Max had a ring!