Christine was 23 when she met Jared, 27, on a dating app—essentially a modern-day version of "finding love in a dumpster fire." It was March 2020, just before the world plunged into full pandemic mode. Back then, we all naively thought a two-week shutdown would do the trick and never imagined we'd be hoarding toilet paper for the next year.

In April, Christine and Jared decided to meet in person at Watchung Lake in New Jersey. Looking back, it was either a bold move or a sign of the impending public health crisis. But hey, nothing says romance like a 6-foot social distancing radius, right? They spent hours walking around the park—Christine did the walking, while Jared mostly cracked jokes. Despite the bizarre circumstances, they quickly realized they had a lot in common: hiking, cooking, arts and crafts, family, and, of course, a shared love of the outdoors (which, thanks to the pandemic, was mostly devoid of crowds). Jared, a chemist by trade, would later tell Christine he’s great at "finding solutions to problems." Funny enough, that talent didn’t seem to apply to their first date, when everything was closed due to the pandemic.

Over the years, their relationship blossomed like a houseplant that only survives because one of them remembers to water it… (that’d be Jared).

Christine grew up in Scotch Plains, NJ, where she honed quirky talents like crocheting things she’ll never wear and scoring unbelievable thrift store deals. (She once snagged a GUESS leather jacket for $3, a find Jared still insists was stolen.) She also owns a cat named Tucker, who, in a stunning act of betrayal, always greets and showers Jared with affection first.

Jared, meanwhile, was raised in Millstone Township, NJ, where he made a wide variety of friends. An avid baseball fan, snowboarder, disc golfer, and golfer, Christine still isn’t entirely sure if he actually plays these sports or just collects the gear and talks about them incessantly.

In February 2022, they moved in together in Rahway, NJ. Living together has been both a shared adventure and a lesson in compromise—especially when it comes to controlling the Netflix queue. Now, as they plan their wedding, they joke that their love story technically began during a global pandemic—a reminder that sometimes the best love stories come from chaos, isolation, and a little bit of bad timing. The moral of the story? Sometimes all it takes for a happy ending is a swipe right, a good hike, and a pandemic to prove that "love in the time of social distancing" can actually work—if you're into that sort of thing.