The beginning
Amber and Jeff, at age 21, in Washington, DC, the summer they first met and fell in love.
Amber and Jeff met at a political journalism program in Washington, DC, the summer before their senior year of college. When the six-week program ended and they had to part ways, they realized they were in love. So they spent their senior year of college — Amber at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, and Jeff at University of Denver in Denver, Colo. — as a long-distance couple. Both studied abroad their senior year, so at one point they were as far apart as Spain and Thailand without any phone connection. But their relationship survived, and they moved back DC after college and got jobs in their respective fields (Amber in journalism, Jeff in politics). They haven’t been apart since.
Building a life together
Amber and Jeff and their Taiwanese family, Leo, Fiona and Kevin. Jeff and Amber lived in Taiwan for one year.
After two years in DC, they decided to take advantage of their youth and live abroad. Jeff received a grant through the prestigious Fulbright program in the US State Department to teach English in Taiwan for a year. (Why Taiwan? Amber wanted to live in South America; Jeff wanted to live in China, so they compromised on an island 100 miles off the coast of China.) They both moved to Kaohsiung, the southernmost city in Taiwan, in August 2010. Jeff taught English with the Fulbright program and Amber taught English and reported for newspapers such as The Washington Post and Monocle Magazine. If you want to hear more about their time in Taiwan, check out their blog Jeff and Amber in Taiwan. They moved back to the states in 2011 to their current home in Boston, close to Jeff’s family. Currently, Jeff works in green energy and Amber manages the website for a local newspaper. They recently adopted an alley cat, Pippa, (who Jeff loves to pieces) and Amber discovered a passion for cooking.. After the wedding, they will be moving back to Washington, DC, where Jeff will pursue a degree in public policy and international relations at a yet-to-be-determined school.
The proposal
Jeff asking Amber to marry him on the lawn of the Texas State Capitol
In May, for Amber’s 26th birthday, Jeff suggested they spend the weekend in Austin, Texas; Amber’s hometown. They spent the morning quietly enough, eating tacos and barbecue with Amber’s father. In the evening, Amber’s sister, Kelly, and her boyfriend, Preston, headed down to Austin from Fort Worth to have a drink with the couple. The four of them had plans to tour the Texas State Capitol because both Jeff and Preston are history nerds. But of course, everything was running about an hour late (despite months of Jeff planning the day in secrecy with Kelly) and the group missed the tour. So after a quick drink at the historic Driskill Hotel in Austin, the four of them walked up to the lawn of the capitol and Jeff suggested he and Amber at least pose for a picture. He handed his iPhone to Kelly and pretended to smile for the camera as Kelly said, “One, two,three…” and then all of a sudden, Jeff was on one knee, nervously asking Amber to marry him in front of a building that he felt united his passion for politics and Amber’s love for her homestate. She un-hinged her jaw enough to say yes, and a small crowd that had gathered on the lawn during the proposal clapped. (Kelly videotaped the whole proposal on Jeff’s iPhone, so just ask Amber or Jeff if you want to see it.) A limo pulled up that Kelly had stocked with celebratory champagne and whisked everyone away to a beautiful restaurant on a lakeside cliff in Northwest Austin, where Jeff’s entire immediate family and Amber’s entire immediate family were waiting to surprise Amber for an engagement party. It was a memorable day.
Jeff & Amber Forever 