Chad & Emily met on Emily's front porch on April 22, 2022. Chad and the couple's mutual friend Kevin had come to pick Emily up for the Promise Land 50K trail race. (Emily was barefoot and eating cereal out of a take-out container at the time.) As the men loaded her bag (how gentlemanly!), Chad said to Kevin, "She's cute!" and Kevin replied, "and single." Emily's first thought? "He's tall. I like it!"

The two got to know one another over the weekend amidst race preparations, campfire chats, laughing with friends, and a walk through Natural Bridge State Park. They parted with a hug that Sunday, and Emily recalls feeling bittersweet, "like we'd started a great conversation and hadn't had time to finish it."

Luckily for her, Chad is brimming with thoughtful, intriguing questions, and he's persistent. The conversation continued, after all, through a flurry of text messages that next week. Their first official date (tacos!) was May 1, Chad made Emily a delicious vegetarian meal (he's a carnivore) for date 2 less than a week later, and dates 3-8 occurred in about a 6-day span. They've talked every single day since their meeting.

In the next year and a half, Emily and Chad ran, kayaked, hiked, biked, and cheered one another on at running (Emily), swim (Chad), and triathlon (Chad) races. They've gardened, cooked, cleaned out one another's basements, painted Chad's kitchen, and trimmed Emily's overgrown hedges.

More importantly, they've bravely embraced conversations and associated strong emotions about family, religion, faith, politics, past relationships, parenting, grief, and faulty personality traits.

Grounded in this honesty, Chad and Emily look forward to a lifetime partnership in which they'll stand shoulder to shoulder to face challenges and receive joys together.

Chad proposed adorably to Emily on December 14, 2023 and the duo can't wait to get this married thing going!

Registry

We're not wanting of anything. We're just excited to celebrate with you. If you really want to make a gift, though, we'd welcome contributions to our honeymoon fund. We're thinking a little cabin somewhere for a few days right after the wedding and somewhere exciting sometime after that-- Kauai?!