Chelsea and Ryan

Halloween is my (Chelsea) favorite Holiday, and Ryan is always such a good sport about it. I come up with costume ideas every year, and Ryan always goes with it. We’ve been Marilyn Monroe + JFK, and Peg + Al Bundy.

This was taken by our waitress at one of our favorite local cocktail bars on Halloween. We were Marilyn Monroe + JFK.

(From Ryan) The search for my conclusion from bachelor life ended as soon as I laid eyes on a beautiful women devouring chocolate covered pancakes in the seat adjacent from me as if I nor her friends weren’t watching (no cares given.) I was desperately trying to figure out a way to strike up a conversation with her. After several failed attempts I decided to make fun of her eyebrows even though they looked like they were sculpted perfectly by a master aesthetician. Needless to say that approach didn’t work too much but it did spark her interest into thinking what type of imbecile would say that?

Fast forwarding to the present Chelsea is the best thing to ever happen to me. She is undeniably very patient, understanding, supportive and loving. I look forward to the many years of her saying to me “Guess what?” (Such a cruel game) to her never ending quest to find the perfect potato chip only to break it in half. There isn’t one thing I would change. I love her.

(From Chelsea)

Ryan and I met completely by chance. We have a mutual friend whom I was out with on a Saturday night and she insisted we get late night breakfast, which is where we ran into each other. I remember him doing a quick, little double take when I first walked in.... but then he teased me and gave me such a hard time the rest of the night that I wasn’t sure he liked me! We ended up being friends for about 6 months before we started dating. Everything was so organic and just happened naturally. I think friendship being the basis and starting point of our relationship has made our relationship so great because we are truly each other’s best friend. I love to think about how meant to be it was that we met each other. If we had done anything different that day, we wouldn’t have ran into each other— but it was fate!

Ryan and I went to Frankenmuth the first weekend in December (2018). We went to all of the Christmas shops, had dinner, went on a horse carriage ride, and just had a lovely day away. At the end of the day, we walked by a beautiful, gold Christmas tree. Ryan “dropped” a gold ornament with the intention I would pick it up and read it, but I was preoccupied and hangry so I said, “just leave it” and tried to keep walking. He picked it up, gave it to me, and said, “what does it say?!” Written on the front was, “Chelsea, will you marry me?”. As I pieced together what was happening, he got down on one knee and proposed— I was so surprised!! It was so special and intimate, just the two of us. Afterwards we went to the hotel bar and ordered drinks, then went to the hotel pool and hot tub to hang out, typical us— fun, and low key.

One of my favorite memories is when Ryan surprised me with our sweet Layla for my birthday in 2017. We had talked about getting a dog for awhile and had looked at the Humane Society several times. The week before my birthday, on a random Tuesday, I came home from work and Ryan came out of the bedroom carrying Layla, with a pink bow attached to her collar. I was so surprised! Somehow, she has brought so much more fun to our life than we even had before. She’s the sweetest and if you come over to visit, expect Layla snuggles.

In the 4 1/2 years we’ve been together, we’ve traveled, watched our friends get married, watched our siblings have babies— welcoming new nieces and nephews. We adopted our fur child and we’ve grown in our careers. There have been so many exciting, fun weekends away or cool places we’ve been, but my favorite part of our life together is simply— us. Coming home from a long day of work and eating dinner together at our tiny kitchen table with Layla at our feet and then laughing while watching ‘The Office’. Sunday mornings eating cinnamon rolls on the couch. We just have so much fun together and we are best friends.