We met on the dating app Hinge. The date of the match was December 27th of 2020 and Liam opened the conversation with: “Hey, how was your Christmas?” Little did we know we would talk every day from that moment on.

Unfortunately, Lizzy was in South Carolina at the time and wouldn’t be back in Chicago until late January, so the first few weeks of chatting were exclusively via text. After a couple weeks of texting, Lizzy was so eager for real conversation that she proposed a “FaceTime date”. While Liam was admittedly a bit skeptical of a FaceTime date at first, he accepted and the time was set. That skepticism wore off quickly as we talked and laughed for multiple hours (so long that Liam’s phone died midway through).

Our official first date was January 21st at Avli Taverna in Lincoln Park. Chicago was still restricting indoor dining at this point, so on that 36 degree evening, we ate and drank in a sidewalk tent that was warmed to ~50 degrees by a handful of heat lamps. The fact that neither of us seemed bothered by the temperature and willingly sat for 3 hours probably tells you all that you need to know.

Just 870 days later, we were engaged!