Our Story
Our story started on one slow day at work when Ellie got a “match” notification on Tinder in May of 2018. She opened up her app to see she matched with a fellow runner. He had a Quad-Cities Marathon shirt on and she immediately asked if he went to Augustana College (Ellie's Alma Mater) even though his profile clearly said he went to University of Iowa (go Hawks!). He didn't say a word.
They exchanged a couple of messages and Ellie suggested they meet at a local winery to listen to live music for their first date.
Great idea, right? Wine, some music… With a heat index of 100°.
Ellie sweat through her cotton shorts, and Jacob seemed cool as a cucumber. Jacob kept saying “what?” because, it turns out, a first date at a concert maybe isn't the best idea.
Nevertheless, Ellie got into this strangers car (regretfully, he didn't have fabric seats to mask the sweat) and Jacob drove them to a brewery downtown to cool off and got to know each other a bit better.
That summer they met each other's friends, bopped around concerts, went on bike-rides, and per a text message Ellie wrote to Jacob in 2019 reflecting on the previous summer “it was the best summer I ever had”.
But, we're still in 2018. In September, Ellie accepted a job offer to move to Ottumwa, which put their relationship on hold…. For about a month.
After visiting each other nearly every weekend, they decided to call it what it was on December 7th, 2018.Since then, Ellie and Jacob navigated a long distance relationship, several rapid fire moves (Ottumwa has a mouse problem- you've been warned!), big career changes, buying and remodeling their first house, raising a temperamental puppy, more concerts than they can keep track of, and many vacations.
We're so excited to reflect on our history and future together - cheers!!
