Our Story

For the ‘how they met,’ ‘how he popped the question,’  — you’ve come to the right place.

How They Met

While Taylor Pipes grew up in the friendly, agricultural heartland of Wisconsin and Melinda Roadenbaugh within eyesight of the famed surf of Huntington Beach, California – it took a common and unique connection for the two of them to finally meet.

Fresh from a move to San Francisco, Melinda had just accepted a job at Del Monte. Across the Bay Bridge, Taylor was wrapping up his final year of graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley.

You see, when Melinda had moved to San Francisco to accept a job at Del Monte Foods, she wasn’t as connected to a circle of friends as she was back home in Orange County or while at school in Northern Arizona. But through the power of social networks and through amazing happenstance, Melinda was able to recall that Taylor was friends with Andrew Gorman, one of many Wisconsinites that happened to live and study abroad with Melinda in London. Taylor and Andrew were classmates at Elkhorn Area High School since third grade.

They got together shortly before Christmas in 2007 and shared post-work drinks together along the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Taylor almost botched the planned drinks date. He was caught in traffic, couldn’t seem to find a parking spot, but through it all Melinda patiently waited and Taylor frequently called updating her on his whereabouts. Amazingly, after nearly an hour of waiting, Melinda was still there and the two eventually shared drinks under the outdoor canopy of a bar. After, Taylor took Melinda to the Carnelian Room, a now defunct-bar at the top of one of San Francisco’s tallest buildings. They said their goodbyes on the corner of Montgomery and California.

Weeks turned into months. Taylor returned to the busy world of graduate school and Melinda to investor relations at Del Monte. They always kept up through email and text messages, but it wasn’t until Melinda gave Taylor a ring and asked if he wanted to meet some friends in Berkeley to watch a friend’s band. They hung out, had some beers and talked late into the night. When Melinda’s friends had to leave, Taylor mustered up the strength to plant a kiss on Melinda’s cheek and said goodnight.

A few weeks later in the, a housemate’s weeknight partying led Melinda to seek out her Easy Bay buddy. Taylor was hunkered down in an edit suite over at the Journalism School, putting the final touches on his thesis film, “Cheese Wars” when a beep from his computer startled him. Low and behold, it was a Facebook instant message window — until that moment, Taylor had no idea that was a feature of Facebook, but Melinda was irritated by her noisy roomies and asked Taylor if he was interested in grabbing a beer. No longer interested in sitting in a dark edit bay until the late hours of the night, Taylor took her proposal and the two met at Melinda’s local pub, The Fish Bowl.

Even though Melinda spurned Taylor’s invitation to his graduation — Melinda decided running the infamous, drunken Bay To Breakers was more important — the two stayed in contact. Shortly after Taylor graduated, the two went on what is considered to be their first date – dinner at a Pan Asian restaurant in the Haight followed by drinks at two dive bars in the Sunset. Melinda first felt that twinge of ‘something more’ when Taylor went back to the Midwest for a family trip to Kentucky. Taylor realized he missed Melinda and called her frequently during his trip – especially during one memorable night when the humid, sticky air gave way to thunderstorms and Taylor paced around an empty hotel pool talking with Melinda into the evening.

When they reunited back in California, the two became inseparable, spending weekends on road trips to Wine Country and having adventures across the city of San Francisco.

How He Popped The Question?

In late September, Melinda surprised Taylor with tickets to the Monday Night Football game featuring the Green Bay Packers playing the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.

Planning for an extended autumn weekend in Chicago began in earnest, plane tickets were purchased and best of all — tickets deep in the bowels of Soldier Field were secured as part of a birthday present.

Little did Melinda though, behind the scenes for the past many months, Taylor was busy finalizing arrangements for Melinda’s engagement ring. Literally hours before they left the airport, Taylor rushed to the jeweler during lunch to pick up the ring and the box.

Ever traveled with a ring through airport security? While there is no reason to be worried, and the fact that rings tend to not set off airport screeners, the mere fear of being ‘discovered’ is enough to make most men wallow in fear. And to top that off, Taylor dumped the ring in a dark corner of his roll-on luggage. When they got the airport, a chunk of tire and corner of the luggage had torn off and was missing. Immediately fearing that the ring box had fallen out the hole in transit, Taylor desperately checked, and luckily the ring was neatly, safely tucked in the opposite side.

The trip to Chicago was uneventful, and the ring successfully made it to Chicago. Time to enjoy the sights and sounds that make Chicago one of their favorite cities. Melinda dreamed of the day she could ply the waters of the Chicago River on the famous Architecture Tour, and so they did. A beautiful warm day greeted them and the tour ended up being one of the most fun aspects of the trip, gleaning loads of knowledge about the various shapes, styles and stories that made up the architectural jewels perched on the river’s edge. Chicago truly is one of the most important cities in the world in terms of its stock of architecture and this became even more apparent after the Chicago Fire devastated most of the city, and the architects of the world flocked here to rebuild high into the sky.

Friday September 25 was the day Taylor decided to pop the question. And thankfully the weather decided to turn blustery and cold. Blue skies gave way to wintery, grey clouds and brisk winds. Melinda was so cold she was forced to stop into a North Face store on Michigan Avenue to get a warmer sweatshirt. And the whole time, Taylor had the somewhat clunky, enormous ring box in the breast pocket of his coat. The entire day Taylor walked to the right side of Melinda, throwing her off just a bit because he normally walks to her left.

The two began a walk up the coast of Lake Michigan, stopping to take November-esque pictures with the Chicago skyline in the background. After brunch, Taylor decided to take Melinda through Lincoln Park Zoo. Earlier in his planning he had found an advantageous spot of which to pop the question just north of the zoo, around North Pond. Nerves continued to frazzle and after hanging around the primate pavilion, Taylor steered Melinda north to the pond.

At the northern edge of the pond stands a famous Chicago culinary hotspot — The North Pond Restaurant. A bit after noon, the restaurant was closed and the patio stretching in front was absent of any people except for a father playing with his daughter. It was perfect. The view of the pond stretched out to trees whose leaves were beginning to turn hues of orange and red framed by the Chicago skyline.

Taylor dropped to his knee, pulled out the ring box and opened it in front of a stunned Melinda. The rest was truly a blur, Melinda tore out the ring and placed it on her hand, and Taylor actually had to ask her again if she would marry him. Hundreds of calls to family and friends were made, and the news finally made its way to Wisconsin, California and beyond and they both spent the evening celebrating.

A truly special dinner was had at Frontera Grill, where the two were able to privately and discretely meet chef/owner Rick Bayless, winner of the first Top Chef Masters. The next day another celebration meal was had at The Girl & The Goat.