We met in 2007 at the University of Illinois in a freshman French 101 class. As romantic as that sounds, we merely became friends on Facebook and didn't see each other again for almost seven years.

By then, Paul was fresh out of grad school living in Chicago and Jess was on his third move for General Mills in Minneapolis. In 2014, with Jess home with his family in Chicago for Thanksgiving, we found ourselves within each other's Tinder radius. We struck up conversation (all in Google-translated French, as if we both spoke the language) and ended it politely by agreeing to grab a drink when he was back for Christmas.

On Christmas Day, 2014, we set up a time to get drinks the next evening. With plenty of other holiday obligations and the fact that we lived a six-hour drive apart (and Jess having committed to another date earlier in the day) neither of us were all that interested. But we stuck to our plan - and ended up talking all night.

Of the next seven days that Jess was in town, we spent six of them together. The goodbyes at the end of the week were unexpectedly emotional but despite having declared we would not consider long distance under any circumstances, Paul booked flights to Minneapolis on the spot for a few weeks later.

After a year and a half of long distance, then another year of longer distance when Jess moved to Austin, Texas, he finally moved back home to Chicago in 2017.

On a hike during a trip to Maui in February 2022, we got engaged. Paul surprised Jess at the top of Waihe'e Ridge with a bottle of champagne and a Love bracelet, and he said yes.

Mid-wedding planning this year, we picked up our lives and two cats, Max & Wednesday, and moved to Atlanta after six years in Chicago together. We are loving our new city but are hoping for a more relaxed 2024!

We are so excited to be celebrating our marriage this September with our families and closest friends. We are so grateful to share our love for travel and hope that you will join us in France to close out our story full circle.