WE'RE MARRIED!

Doug and Allie first met at Indiana University, Bloomington our freshman year in 2006 (go Hoosiers!). We lived in the same dorm and had a lot of mutual friends, however, we had only exchanged a few words. After graduation, Allie moved back to her hometown of Chicago and Doug moved back to his home state of New Jersey. After a year at home, Doug decided to make the move to the windy city of Chicago for his Masters degree. As we were living out our lives in our 20’s in Chicago, Allie and Doug had both become single and were out and about on St. Patrick’s Day 2016 (about 10 years after they first met). Allie was heading to a bar called, Municipal, because her girlfriend was excitedly meeting up with a fellow from a dating app for the first time. As drinks were flowing, in walks Doug. Allie greets Doug with a big, “Hey! I know you!”. Still to this day, according to Doug, Allie didn't want anything to do with him and states she turned away as he was asking her questions (Allie says not true). Lo and behold, Allie's friend and the man from the dating app realized they were not meant for each other after 5 minutes into their conversation...

The next day, Doug messages Allie on Facebook saying he would like to get together to "catch up". Allie finally accepted after a few weeks. During our initial dates we realized we had been living parallel lives going to Boca Raton, Florida, very similar upbringings, the same pet peeves, a love for art, Broadway musicals, food and the same taste in music - anything but country! Two months later, Doug took Allie on a walk to the Chicago lakefront to let her know he received a job offer in New York City. Allie’s stomach was in knots and Doug didn't feel so great about leaving either. However, we decided that we were going to try doing a long distance relationship, which took many nightly phone calls and countless flights. It was FAR from easy, but we knew that if we could get through this, we could get through anything (i.e. quarantining together in our small apartment for months on end!)

After two and a half years of long distance (oy vey!) many obstacles, fun memories and lots of traveling/vacations, Allie decided to finally make the move to NYC to be with Doug. A few months later, Doug popped the question at the Chicago Lakefront on the steps of Diversey Harbor (where he originally told Allie he was moving to NYC) and said: “I know I left you to move to New York, but I am never leaving you again".

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone and their future plans. During the onset of the pandemic, we realized pretty quickly (as we are also realists) that this was no short-term feat. As we had been planning our wedding event (date changed 3 times) we made the difficult decision to do the safest option and elope without any family. We weren’t going to let some virus get in the way of tying the knot! Luckily, our sister-in-law (Rabbi Adena Blum) was in cahoots with us on our secret elopement (NO family knew it was happening) and was gratefully up to the task to marry us. 10.10.2020, Allie and Doug eloped on the sandy shores of Long Beach, NY under the sunset. It was the happiest and dreamiest day of our lives. (photos in the photo tab of this website) Doug and Allie currently reside in Astoria, NY. We were hoping to celebrate with you all together, but for now, we will have a toast the next time we see you! L’Chaim! Allie & Doug