About Us

Whitney Joondeph

Whitney was born in Freiburg, Germany in 1970. She was adopted by Dr. Howard Joondeph and his wife Bette that same year. When Howard was discharged from the military, she along with the rest of her family followed Howard to various locations while he completed his education. The family settled in Grosse Pointe, Michigan in 1975. Whitney went to Barnes Elementary School through the fifth grade. After, she was admitted to University Liggett Middle School. She attended both middle and high school at Liggett, graduating in 1988. After graduation, she moved to Northfield, Minnesota and enrolled in St. Olaf College where she received her B.A. in English in 1992. She went on to attend Hamline University School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota, earning her J.D. in 1997. She currently lives in Minneapolis. She works for 3M Company in Maplewood, Minnesota.

Eric Brodeur

Eric was born in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1971 to Ronald and Elizabeth Brodeur of Fall River. Eric was raised in the Air Force, living in Utah, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Selfridge ANG Base Michigan, and Chanute AFB Illinois, where he graduated from Rantoul Township High School in 1989. Eric graduated Magna Cum Laude with an Electrical Engineering degree from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, Indiana in 1993. Eric has worked in multiple start-up companies in the networking and storage industries. Eric lived in Boston and Seattle before moving to Minneapolis in 2010 to work for EMC.

Our Story

How we met

Eric moved to Minneapolis in January 2010. Both Eric and Whitney were friends with Emily Hooper, and they met at Emily's Thanksgiving / Birthday party (and immediately Facebook friended each other). They didn't run into each other again, until ...

How we started dating

Fast forward a year. A month after Eric filed for divorce in October, at Emily's birthday party, he ran into Whitney again, who suggested they should get together for coffee sometime "after your divorce is over." They exchanged a few notes, but agreed that waiting until after the divorce was the prudent route. Meanwhile, Eric dug into work and the legal process.

Two weeks later, prompted by a slew of her friends, Whitney realized that waiting until after the divorce is over might be a very long time, indeed. Besides, what if they didn't get along? Whitney decided she didn't want to wait a year to find out, so they met for coffee in mid-December at Eric's favorite spot, Sister Sludge. A one hour coffee date turned into a four hour conversation, which then turned into a dinner date, even though Eric & Whitney kept insisting, "It's not a date!" As Whitney said afterward: "I had a really great time not-dating you. If you're up for it, I look forward to not-dating you again."

The Road Trip

First, Eric's friend Kate invited him to visit her in Philly. Then Whitney and Eric talked about visiting Boston and seeing old friends. Soon after that, Eric started talking about visiting his parents in Maine (introducing the New Girlfriend). Coincidentally enough, an impromptu ManRay club reunion party was organized, which went viral and hit critical mass, and the plans solidified. As one would say in ManRay days, WE MUST GO!

Unfortunately, flying was expensive. The solution? Eric's Hybrid Civic was cheaper than round trip airline tickets, and a heck of a lot more comfortable. (Sadly, Eric forgot about the endless toll roads in IL, IN, PA, NJ, NY, MA, NH, ME, and NY.)

But a two week road trip after dating only six months? Is that even allowed? It would be a test, that's for sure. Fortunately for them both, they had a great time! Doing everything together made it twice as fun. They saw America from the road, visiting Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston. They relaxed at Eric's parents' house in Maine for a few days, enjoying good family time. Finally, they made it through the long drive home from Maine to Minneapolis.

The Ada Dog

Eric's Golden Retriever, Ripley, died in June during the road trip. Whitney suggested that he get another dog, but Eric wanted to take some time to grieve before taking on a new family member. Eric kept telling Whitney that no dog would ever be as good as Ripley, or fill the dog-shaped hole that Ripley left behind. Still, a week after returning to Minneapolis, Eric went to an adoption event "just to see." Later that afternoon, he checked out a few Humane Societies with Whitney. There were a few contenders, but he kept thinking of this scared German Shepherd mix he met at the event. Eric called to schedule a house visit so she could meet Whitney and the cats. She did well with the cats, and made a favorable impression on Whitney. That evening, Whitney told Eric, "You need to get that dog. You're not going to find a better dog than that." Eric trusted Whitney's judgment, and on Monday, Eric's new dog was dropped off at her forever home.

Eric considered many names over the next weeks, and with the help of friends, decided to call her Ada. She is one of the smartest dogs either Eric or Whitney have ever known. Ada is also loyal, trainable, and an endless source of entertainment. Taking on the shared responsibility for raising Ada has brought Whitney and Eric closer together.

The Proposal

As the Christmas holidays approached, Eric and Whitney had been talking about their upcoming second year, and potentially moving in together at some point... and the subject of Marriage did pop up occasionally. More often than not, as a Freudian slip on the part of Eric.

Eric took a week off from work to visit Whitney's family back home in Grosse Pointe for the holiday. Another road trip! They decided to take Ada with them, to meet the family — And also because they couldn't stand the idea of boarding her for a week. She is a sensitive dog, after all... The road trip was, as usual, much fun!, continuing their tradition of the previous road trip: Reading books to each other. (This time: Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris, and Thomas Gray, Philosopher Cat by Philip J. Davis.)

Now, unbeknownst to Whitney, Eric had been planning to ask Whitney to marry him on New Years Eve — which was really the date they considered their relationship to have "officially started" as boyfriend-girlfriend. But throughout the weekend at her Mom's, Eric kept thinking how it would really be more appropriate to ask her there... before they left... at her home... and where she could tell her Mom the news in person. So he first asked Bette for Whitney's hand in marriage, on Christmas Day. Then he waited until the day after Christmas, the same morning they had to load up the car with all of Bette's gifts, and head back home to get back to work.

"Whitney, are you awake?" "Hmphgarble" "Hey..." "Hmmph?" "I've got something important to ask you." Whitney wakes up quickly (mostly), and attempts to sit up – alarm in her eyes. "What???" "It's nothing bad... I wanted to ask you something before we left." "What?" "Do you remember what we were talking about lately? Marriage? Do you want to get married?" "What?!?" "I was going to ask you at New Years, but I decided it would be better to ask you here, so you could tell your Mom before we left." "YES!"