Reid and Vanessa met early in Vanessa's first year of college, though they weren't romantically involved until two years later (casting her in the shows he directed paid off!). Though their lives eventually took them in different directions, clearly there was something that would bring these two back together in a few years' time.
After both Vanessa and Reid finished graduate school (Reid at Michigan, Vannie at Harvard), the two ended up on the East Coast. Reid was in New York, enjoying a paid-deferral from his BigLaw job, while Vanessa was in D.C., training for her first posting with the State Department. Fortunately, that left Reid plenty of time to follow Vanessa's exploits via email, the two reconnected, and the rest is history! One highlight of this period was their trip to Rehoboth Beach, DE, pictured here.
It was a tough couple of years. Vanessa was serving our country as a Diplomat in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, while Reid was just starting as a junior associate at one of the biggest law firms in the country. Despite the 12 hour time difference, they stayed very much a couple - Reid even surprised Vanessa with a visit one March!
After a private tour of Versailles in the morning and the Monet Gardens of Giverny in the afternoon, Reid and Vanessa were left to walk along the Seine by the Old Mill in Vernon. As it turned out, it was a set-up; Reid had arranged for a violinist and a picnic to back him up as he proposed, and a secret photographer to record the moment for posterity.
Vanessa adopted Gilda Jane Quesadilla Tantillo while on her tour of duty in Ho Chi Minh City. Gilda, the first of a set of triplets, was abandoned by her original owner when an astrologer prophesied that Gilda was "inauspicious." That astrologer must have been reading her star chart upside-down, because Gilda has been anything but unlucky for Vanessa and Reid!