In 2015, Alisa Rosenthal, Amelia’s bestie from the Chicago League of Lady Arm Wrestlers (who is, of course, officiating our wedding), invited Amelia to a friend’s annual Oscars party. That friend, one Geoff George, had known Alisa since they’d met at the University of Iowa in the early aughts. Geoff and Amelia had never exchanged a word.
Amelia quickly noticed the following: Geoff’s cute face, the highly specific copyediting tattoo on his wrist (“stet”), his stuffed-but-thoughtful bookshelf, and his official “house cocktail” (the boulevardier, which will be on offer during the reception). Geoff immediately took note of Amelia’s bubbly personality, the striking way her glasses framed her eyes, and, later, the red canvas bag she accidentally left behind at the end of the night.
Though they exchanged a couple of messages about it on Facebook, the bag sat in Geoff’s closet, waiting, for almost a full year. It became a recurring joke the handful of times he and Amelia ran into each other (most memorably at a Joanna Newsom concert).
Then, when Amelia became single again in 2016, she zeroed in, unabashedly hitting on Geoff at a Valentine’s Day party. Although he picked up on the signals, Geoff, being the notorious bet hedger that he is, made no immediate moves. As additional luck would have it, though, the next day they also happened to match on Tinder, to which Geoff responded, “Would you believe I was already trying to figure out the best way to ask you out?”
Shortly thereafter, on February 19, 2016, they went on their first date, at Simon’s Tavern, in Andersonville, and then a few days later they went to the Green Mill. With the Oscars once again coming up, Geoff said he’d finally be able to give Amelia her bag back, and she joked that he should make it a treasure hunt. Big mistake, ’cuz he actually did, with six clues written in iambic hexameter. He’s done a treasure hunt every Oscars since, though he’s cut down on the iambs because they are rough.
In the years that followed those early days, Amelia and Geoff eventually moved in together, bought a car together, bought a place together, and traveled to four different countries and countless states, including Louisiana. There, in January of 2020, it was Geoff’s turn to be the slyly determined person in the relationship, when he managed to surprise Amelia with a proposal in a New Orleans photo booth.
They’ve been waiting ever since to finally celebrate the damn thing with their friends and family, and they can’t wait to see everyone in October!
