Chandler: I saw this cute girl with this cute little dog and I thought "Wow she is pretty hot." I clicked on her profile and I thought "I'm screwed. How am I going to talk to her? Well, she teaches kids with ADD and she loves God. I am just going to say, I love God and I have ADD."
Jess: So, one night, in July of 2015, I was on vacation and I received an email. The first thing I saw was a very attractive man in a blue polo, who I thought looked a mix of Gerald Butler and Chris O'Dowd. The opening line of his email was "I love Jesus and I have ADD, lol". Obviously, I responded because he was super attractive and I am glutton for punishment.
Chandler: To my surprise, she responded. I thought I had found a local girl and then she said she was in Maine at the time. I thought "Well, that's a little farther." But on our first date I thought "Wow she's amazing." On our second date, we went miniature golfing and I really knew that this was a special girl. Plus she was wearing some pretty hot shorts!
Jess: We emailed back and forth for a couple of weeks and then he asked me to meet him for coffee. Unfortunately I was still on vacation, but he said he would wait until I returned and continued to talk to me during that time, which was my first clue that this was a good guy. We met at a coffee shop and then continued to talk for hours. He asked some great questions and told some funny stories. Before we left, he asked if we could meet again.
Chandler: I do simple things, I walk to work, everywhere I go is within five minutes. People that know me, know that I am an Akron guy through and through. She asked me if I wanted to go to Maine for Christmas and I said "What's Maine?" Just kidding. I told her I would go. I had never been on a plane alone before. I had never been on a trip by myself before. I realized that I must love this girl. We spent the whole week together.
Jess: For me, Maine is such a sacred place and I only invite people there with whom I feel truly comfortable. We had actually said "I love you" prior to him spending the week in Maine, but that trip changed things. To see him spend an entire week with my parents and my siblings cemented my feelings. He engaged my family in conversations, took out our dogs, and would always help us all clean up. Not only was he there as my guest, but I could already see him being a part of our family.
Chandler: Over the next six months, I would say things to my family and closest friends about marriage and I was surprised but they weren't. That's when I knew I needed to ask her to marry me. I knew exactly where I wanted to ask her, it was at the park where I always went to walk my dogs and clear my mind. I had always thought that this would be the perfect place to ask my future wife to marry me. To my surprise, she said yes!
Jess: Over the next six months, we talked on and off about the possibility of marriage, because by this point we were crazy in love, but no official plans were made, at least that is what I thought. On June 17, 2016 I was driving back from Kansas City and Chandler asked me to come to see him in Akron the next day. While I wanted to see him, the thought of more driving was super the opposite of what I wanted to do, but the next day I went anyway. When I got to his apartment, he suggested that we go on a picnic so we ventured off to a local metro park and he led me to a spot in a meadow, under a giant tree, where you could see for miles. Being well prepared, he had a full picnic, basket included, and we spent hours catching up, eating, and laughing. On June 18th, as the sun was beginning to set, Chandler asked if I would spend the rest of my life with him and pulled a beautiful ring out. I, emphatically said yes.
Chandler: She didn't just say yes, she was shaking.
Both: Thanks for joining us as we now get to celebrate our marriage and the rest of our lives together!