‘Twas the summer of 2020. Stay at home orders and 14-day quarantines were the new normal. All hope seemed lost for humanity and for love and yet… Ben and Cotis found ourselves on dating apps. One to be specific. Hinge. Why not? What else are we to do in a Pan-Demi-Lovato? We swiped and swiped until we found each other. Ben, captivated by Cotis’s warm smile and Cotis, allured by the active and multi-faceted life Ben seemed to live. While we matched in July and began talking, we didn’t get to meet face to face until a month later, as Cotis had traveled to Georgia and had to quarantine when he returned to Chicago. The pandemic tried it, but we were determined.

Finally, the fateful day came: the first in person meetup. As two responsible adults, our first date was a social-distance-friendly walk in Humboldt Park followed by takeout tacos (if you know anything about Ben, you know that tacos are essential). While most first dates can be awkward (and everyone seemed to lose all social skills during the Pan-Demi-Moore), Ben and Cotis found it easy to talk to each other. Somehow being around each other felt normal almost right away as the date lasted the entire day without us even realizing it. Two weeks later, we had the “what are we?” conversation, which was brief because we both said “boyfriends” and kept it moving.

Soon we were spending the majority of every week together. Cotis was juggling working and the last year of his MBA program, taking meetings and classes in Ben’s apartment. Ben was writing and workshopping scripts, including Rooted (which just premiered in October 2025!). As the COVID vaccine was released and the world started to open back up again, we had to learn how not to spend as much time together. Cotis got to see how much more hectic life in the performing arts can be as Ben got more opportunities to dance, act, and direct. While it made things more difficult, we persevered and were committed to the relationship and each other. So much so that by Christmas, we had met each other’s families, ready to take things to the next level.

Pretty early on, Ben and Cotis had serious talks about marriage and the type of relationship we saw for ourselves. It would take a lot for us before we were ready to pop the questions and yet, not even 2 years after that first in-person date, Ben casually mentioned that he was ready to marry Cotis…Cotis was shocked to say the least. But hey, when you know, you know and you just can’t put a timeline on that (as much as Cotis would like to because he’s a planner). There was no formal surprise “will you marry me?” and yet we just agreed that we were engaged. We announced our engagement to our family and friends a few months later, at Thanksgiving in 2022, then later made a more public announcement (with a beautiful engagement photoshoot) on Valentine’s Day of 2023.

I bet at this point you may be wondering, “If they got engaged almost 3 years ago, why aren’t they married already?” Good question. Well, you see, Ben thought he could go to grad school and plan his wedding at the same time (we all know how much Ben likes to think he can do it all). However, Ben quickly learned what a silly idea that was so Ben and Cotis made the decision to postpone the wedding until after Ben graduated (which he did and got his MFA in Screenwriting at Boston University)! Not only was grad school rough, but so was being away from each other. We started by seeing each other almost every day during the pandemic, then adjusted to seeing each other less often, then had to navigate through 2 years of long distance. It wasn’t easy by any means but when you really love someone, you make it work. That’s exactly what we did and now here we are with a wedding date: exactly 6 years after that first walk in Humboldt Park.

We are so happy for you all to share this next chapter of our journey!