Cooper & Max first caught eyes as sophomores at Miami of Ohio, in the backlot of Heavy Hands at the start of their fall semester. Max remembers being smitten by Cooper, but based on her Facebook, he thought she was dating a family friend. For the next two years, Cooper and Max ran in the same circles at Miami, passing each other whenever their mutual friends were together.


The summer approaching their senior year, Susie asked Cooper’s girlfriends to invite a group to Egg Harbor to surprise Cooper with a belated birthday celebration. At Bayside Tavern, the group surprised Cooper, and when she saw Max behind their pack of friends waiting to say hello, she was pleasantly shocked to see the guy she knew as Vio had come along. Over this weekend, Max spent the days instilling a friendship with Cooper.


Their first night back in Oxford always meant celebrating Annie Ariens’ birthday, so Max’s friends arrived at the Chase apartment for this birthday pregame before heading to where all roads lead in Oxford, Brick Street. Max immediately found Cooper, and they talked through the night. The following day classes started, and much to their surprise, they walked into Sports Economics to find each other. Max walked Cooper home after class, and their relationship grew in the following weeks. They headed to Nashville for Fall Break with their friends, and after a day on Broadway, they snuck away to Martins BBQ for their first date, and Max asked Cooper to be his girlfriend.


After graduation, Cooper moved to Dallas and Max back to D.C., but their relationship continued 1,300 miles apart. They spent time together in Door County and their cities whenever possible until Max moved to Dallas that spring, and the rest was history. Over the next five years of dating, Max and Cooper enjoyed many adventures with each other and their families, growing to love the unique parts of where they both came from. Cooper’s passion for Egg Harbor always brought them back each summer, and Max quickly came to love it too.


Max always knew Cooper was the one since that first night of senior year, so on March 17th, he proposed in Chicago by the water. After weeks of anxiety about how he would do this without Cooper finding out, he pulled off the biggest surprise ever and still has no idea what he said down on one knee. Max organized the perfect weekend, and they celebrated the start of this next chapter with the people they love who had watched their relationship unfold.


Max & Cooper are so excited to get married, surrounded by all of the people they hold so close to their hearts, in the place where the universe decided to finally bring them together.