Wendy's lets husband surprise wife by being first customers at new Parksville, B.C., location

Parksville, B.C. -

It’s been said "men are from Mars and women are from Venus," but in this couple’s case, Thomas is a McDonald’s man, while Ellie is a Wendy’s woman.

"What I have with McDonald’s goes very deep," Thomas smiles, recalling how his parents would always take him to the fast food restaurant as a child. "We have a lot of history together, me and Ronald [McDonald]."

Ellie, on the other hand, grew up across the street from a Wendy’s restaurant.

A young Ellie is pictured enjoying a Wendy's burger."Whenever my family would eat out, that’s where we’d eat," Ellie laughs. "That was our place!"

When Ellie and Thomas first met as teenagers, they became fast friends, despite their differences with fast food.

"It was not a deal-breaker," Thomas laughs. "[There was] too much good for that to ruin it!"

In fact, there was so much good, Ellie and Thomas eventually began dating.

While their first kiss was nothing like that old McDonald’s TV ad, showing a young couple’s first kiss inspired by French fries, Ellie says, "It was love."

That love inspired Ellie and Thomas to get married, before moving away and starting a family.

"There wasn’t a close Wendy’s," Ellie says disappointedly. "So obviously we ate a lot of McDonald’s."

And then they moved to the even smaller town of Parksville, B.C., inspiring Ellie to ask that iconic question from the Wendy’s TV ads: "Where’s the beef?"

"What?" Ellie exclaims. "There’s no Wendy’s here either?"

Similar to the feisty seniors in the classic Wendy’s commercials, Ellie would pass every new building site with hope.

"I thought, 'Oh my gosh!'" Ellie recalls. "'Maybe this is it! Maybe there’s a Wendy’s!'"

That’s when Thomas realized what Ellie was really craving was not food but an opportunity to serve up the same happy childhood memories she’d made, but now for her own family.

"I realized that was a real comfort food for her," Thomas says.

So when the restaurant chain finally announced the arrival of a local location, Thomas says he started a months-long conversation with Wendy’s management.

He arranged to surprise Ellie by making her the new restaurant’s first customer.

"It wasn’t like flowers or chocolate, but he knew me so well," Ellie smiles, showing photos of her and her family in the restaurant for the first time. "I felt very loved and paid attention to."

The Hazelman family were the first customers at the new Wendy's location in Parksville, B.C.While Ellie filled her family with meaningful memories, Thomas realized he couldn’t have been happier without a Happy Meal.

"Everybody has different love languages," Thomas says. "Everyone can show love in different ways."

And no matter the menu, you’ll find the most satisfying part of any meal is choosing to share it with the people you love.