Elissa E. Schmidt
Northern Virginia has been my home for almost 3 years now. Before that, Wisconsin was the only place for me.

I am a teacher at Grace Lutheran, a private elementary school in Falls Church, Virginia. My classroom is a multi-grade room of third and fourth graders. Between basketball coaching, playing piano for church, singing in the contemporary choir, organizing a church volleyball team, and organizing our mingles group at church I keep myself rather busy. I am also in the process of getting my Master's Degree in Reading through the University of Virginia.

I have one older brother, Matt, and a younger sister, Bethany. Of course, I cannot forget, Mitsee, the family dog. My parents have a cabin on a lake in Northern Wisconsin where we spend a majority of time all year round. If you are at all wondering- Yes! Our blood is green and gold for the Packers.



Nicholas R. Ellermann
I am mostly from Indiana, but have lived in a couple of other states as a youngster before landing in Virginia. I came to Northern Virginia, 'NOVA' as it is called, for my first job out of school.

I grew up in an Indiana town, until high school graduation. Loogootee had two stop lights and 4,300 souls. Now there are three stop lights with a McDonalds and Wendy’s. It’s on the map now! My Mom's house is off of US Route 50 in Loogootee. My Dad is also right off of US Route 50 but in Bridgeport, Illinois. This is the same US 50 that crosses through Virginia and into Washington DC. So I am really only down the road a little ways from home! At graduation I moved on to attend Purdue University and studied at the School of Technology. I graduated from Purdue University in May 2002.

I have a whole bunch of siblings. It would take me three hours and a white-board with three colors of markers to explain. Here is a summary: 2 brothers, 3 sisters, 2 step-sisters and 2 step-brothers.

How We Met

Elissa and Nick were first introduced by Elissa's friend, April, while they were both with friends at the Clarendon Grill, a popular hangout on the weekends for many Northern Virginia singles.

Elissa and Nick enjoyed their first conversation, while mostly babysitting their two friends for the evening. They kept in touch by phone for a few weeks and eventually decided to meet up for a date. Afterwards Nick traveled for work over to England and did not see Elissa for many weeks, but they did keep in touch by email. It wasn’t until around the time of the Cherry Blossoms in 2005 that they started making regular plans to see each other.

By the late fall of 2005 they had grown closer and they had even both introduced each other to the families. Through great friendship, the close relationship had firmly established itself.

Engaged on March 27, 2006