Ellie and Otis met in serving at Catholic Youth Summer Camp in Brighton, Michigan. Ellie liked Otis pretty much from the get go, but she was his boss so that made things a little bit tricky... Here is their first picture together celebrating Otis' birthday!

Ellie and Otis started hanging out every weekend during camp with a group of friends (because they couldn't start dating during the summer with camp and they were still trying to figure out each other!), and it started becoming more obvious that they both liked each other. This is a picture taken at the Detroit Tigers game, one of the first times that Ellie and Otis really saw that they liked each other!

During this time, Ellie started to be standoffish to Otis because she didn't know what to do with how she felt about him, but Otis remained consistent and steady and continued to pursue Ellie.

Summer camp ended and Ellie had to go back to Ohio early the next morning, but Otis asked to take her on a 6am date. They climbed to the roof top of the church at camp and unsuccessfully watched the sunrise (it was pouring down rain) and then took her out to breakfast, where he asked her to be her girlfriend. They then started their 8 months of long distance!

Ellie and Otis did lots of travel between Columbus and Steubenville, trying to spend random free time and weekends as Otis was finishing up his senior year at Franciscan University and Ellie was working a full time ministry job with Damascus.

Early on, both Ellie and Otis knew that the Lord had something different for them in their relationship with each other.

They spent their first holiday season together, were involved in each of their families, and enjoyed being together.

They got creative with different dates in person and on FaceTime, just to continue to spend quality time together.

They celebrate 6 months of dating!

As Otis was nearing the end of school, he decided to move to Columbus to be closer to Ellie and to apply for jobs at Damascus, which he ultimately got!

Otis graduated Cum Laude from Franciscan University and long distance ended!

Ellie was on a Marian Pilgrimage for 2 weeks in Europe and Otis wanted to plan a date night for when she got back. Ellie knew that engagement was coming fairly soon, but not that quick! Otis and Ellie prepared a nice dinner, sat on his back patio of his apartment, drinking wine out of coffee mugs. Otis then said some sweet things and pulled the ring out and proposed to Ellie, who was crying and in shock! Of course she said yes! It was such a special and intimate moment just shared with the two of us!