Michael and Chelsea first met in high school, after a mutual friend who Michael had grown up with in Bethel moved to Stamford to live with Chelsea’s friend (and bridesmaid) Natasha. Chelsea and her friends would frequent shows at Empress Ballroom in Danbury where Michael worked during high school and they were eventually introduced through their mutual friend who thought they would hit it off, which they did. However, it wasn’t until years later when Chelsea was an undergraduate at UCONN and Michael was finishing his senior year at the University of New Haven that they went on their first date. A few times over that next year, on rare occasions when Michael was actually home from touring with his band The Ghost Sonata, he drove to Storrs or Stamford to take Chelsea on a few dates. Though there was interest on both sides, Michael and Chelsea had different priorities at the time (touring and partying, respectively). Eventually the two fell out of touch.  

 

Six years later in September 2015 Michael randomly thought of Chelsea when brainstorming a new musical project and reached out to see if she was interested or was ever in Connecticut. Though she had been living in Delaware for years attending graduate school, Chelsea would often come up to Connecticut to visit her parents. Eventually they got together to catch up after years of not seeing each other and were immediately overwhelmed by an undeniable chemistry. It seems that while the seeds were planted many years ago, the timing was finally right for love to bloom.  

 

Michael and Chelsea spent the next year dating long distance, back and forth between Connecticut and Delaware where Chelsea was working toward her Ph.D. Chelsea moved back to Connecticut in 2017 and they moved in together. On a casual Monday evening in June 2019, Michael proposed to Chelsea while taking a walk at sunset in Waveny Park in New Canaan.