Nearlyweds: Ellen Hachborn & Hugh Gillen

Together for: 6 years

The proposal: “Hugh and I have been together for 6 years, but we’ve known each other for 24. We met in kindergarten in Ottawa, where we both grew up (in the kindergarten photo below, I am the snow white with the yellow shirt on the left and Hugh is the lion in the first row). In Grade 2, we were in the same class again and sat next to each other as our last names are next in the alphabet (G and H). My mother likes to say Hugh had a crush on me then, but neither of us remembers.
When I was 10, my family moved to Barrie and I didn’t see Hugh for many years.

In 2010 when we both ended up in first year engineering at Queen’s University in Kingston. I met Hugh (and 2 other kids in the same kindergarten class) and we realized our childhood roots. Hugh and I ended up majoring in the same type of engineering and became good friends during school, though we were both seeing other people.

In our fourth year, both single, we ended up taking a class together where we didn’t know many others and sat next to each other. That’s when I fell in love with him. Turns out he had a crush on me too – we admitted it to each other on the last night of exams after a few too many drinks.

Our love story got interrupted though by our post-undergrad plans. Hugh went to Alberta to work and I stayed in Ontario to continue school. Hugh and I did long distance for 3 years – and in 2017, he moved back to Ontario and got a job in Waterloo. Shortly after, I found a job in Kitchener and in 2018 we finally moved in together.

In August 2019, Hugh and I spent a weekend in the Niagara-on-the-Lake area touring wineries -13 total. At the last one, after a romantic dinner in the vineyard, Hugh walked me through the estate and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I obviously said yes! ” – Ellen