OUR STORY
We first met in 2011, each of us newly arrived in Chicago from California and embracing a newfound feeling of adulthood living in a big city. Our friendship formed on and around dance floors (both of us regulars at Scarlet, Sidetracks, and The Closet) and over late-night laughs about pop culture and politics. We were friends first but never took a chance at anything more.
We reconnected years later while in graduate school at the University of Chicago - Darell pursuing a law degree and Daniel completing a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology - but our paths diverged from Hyde Park before we could get closer. It wasn't until 2018, while Darell was completing a rotation at his law firm's London office and Daniel was doing postdoctoral research at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in upstate New York, that we began talking regularly again (a reconnection in the Instagram DMs). We reunited in Ithaca over the holidays, and after seven years of knowing each other, we gave romance a try. We've been together ever since.
Our love developed long-distance through weekly FaceTime calls, in the content of long emails, in our book club of two, making playlists for each other (two early ones are copied here), and from visiting one another in cities across Europe and New York City. In late 2019, we were finally able to move in together, both relocating to NYC for work - just months before the COVID-19 pandemic. In the crucible of quarantine, our relationship deepened as we learned how to support one another and communicate love through both the good times and the hard ones. We've strived to celebrate each other's differences and let our respective interests enrich our shared life.
We built a family together in Brooklyn, New York, with our two babies: our thirteen year old dog Zola (the very best girl in the world) and our five year old long-tailed finch Dula Peep (a bird who simply humbles all who meet him).
We got engaged in Stockholm, Sweden, in October 2024 - Daniel taking Darell by surprise by proposing while on a bicycle tour around the island of Djurgården. We have been day-dreaming about and planning this wedding ever since. We are so excited to be getting married in New Orleans on February 21st, 2026, a city where we've spent many incredible moments together (including one rockin' New Years Eve telecast on a steamboat docked in the Mississippi with Billy Porter!)
We are so grateful to celebrate this milestone and to be surrounded by the love and support of so many of our friends and family.
We, firmly, believe that a wedding is both a personal and community celebration. Thank you for being in community with us. See you (and your lewks) in New Orleans.
With love and the utmost gratitude,
Darell, Daniel, Zola and Dula Peep