Clear Cut Couples: Chelsea and Tom

Chelsea and Tom met on Hinge, a dating app that connects people with mutual Facebook friends.  Their mutual connection was one of Chelsea’s college friend’s older sister, who happened to work with Tom as a camp counselor one summer in high school. Tom made the first move and struck up a conversation with Chelsea on the app, and after a few days of chatting, they met for a drink and dinner in Bryant Park.  They instantly hit it off.

After almost two years of dating, Tom decided he was ready to pop the question. When Tom came to me for help with the ring, I could tell how excited he was to start the process. He was super hands-on with every aspect of the ring design, and finally decided on a beautiful round brilliant diamond set in a platinum ring with a graduated diamond band.

Tom planned on proposing to Chelsea in Maryland, when they would be visiting her family over Christmas vacation.  Tom brought Chelsea to Annapolis for the day, where they had lunch and walked around town. He led her up to the capitol building, which is high on the hill overlooking all of downtown. As they got to the top, Tom took out of his pocket a flat, square wrapped gift the size of a CD case. Chelsea assumed it was a late Christmas gift. She eagerly unwrapped the gift to find a folded-up map of downtown Annapolis.

At first she was confused, because she had forgotten about a conversation her and Tom had a month earlier. They had been at a friend’s apartment and were admiring a unique old map of Paris. Chelsea mentioned to Tom that they could get a map framed for their apartment, but that it would have to be of a city that was meaningful to both of them.

So Tom said, “You told me that we could hang an old map in our apartment if it was of a city that meant something to us.” Her first thought was “Why did you fold it up? Now it will have creases and wrinkles so we can‘t hang it!” Then Tom got down on one knee and took a small ring box out.  They both blacked out and don’t remember what they said, they only know that Chelsea said YES!

Chelsea and Tom plan on getting married in May 2017 in Oyster Bay, New York.