We met on a "school night" as we were both attending the Modern English concert that night at Valley Bar. For those not familiar, Valley Bar is an intimate, funky, underground concert venue in downtown Phoenix. Jamie was attending with a friend and fellow 80's music fan and Nigel was the +1 for our (unknown at the time that she was a) mutual friend, Dani. The night was full of laughter, new and old friends, and a lot of "me toos" as the conversation flowed and great music surrounded our group. Little did the two of us know at the time what the stars had in mind for us!

Here is how I (Jamie) remember it: we are very much 'experiences, not things' people so when the holidays were looming last year, we decided a trip to the coast and cleansing ocean air was exactly what we wanted (and needed). We still planned to spend the holiday with family, so we scheduled our trip before Christmas proper. We had also recently decided we needed a little more fur in our little family unit, so we planned to bookend our trip with a detour to Riverside to pick up a sweet little Peke named Gibby. Our rental wasn't available for check-in until 4:00 pm that day, so we took our time and enjoyed the drive and checked off a long-anticipated stop at Julian Pie Company (life is uncertain, eat dessert first, right?). As we approached the coast, it was still before check-in so Nigel asked if I wanted to head to Sunset Cliffs to watch the sunset. (Absolutely!) We amazingly got pole-position in the parking area near the stairs. We grabbed our phones and Leti and walked over to the cliffs to take in the crisp winter air and the expanse of water and waves. It was perfectly cool and hazy and the sun was beginning its descent to the horizon. The waves were soothing and water was glowing myriad blues and teals. As I took out my phone to size up the vista before me, I felt Nigel wrap his arms around me and say, "can you get this in the shot too?" Taken off guard, it took me a moment to realize what was happening as I turned to look at him, and then realize there was a small box in his hand and then he said, “I may not be down on one knee, but will you marry me?” I'm pretty sure I made some indiscernible noise instead of uttering the one word he was anticipating as I threw my arms around him. I'm pretty sure he said, "so, is that a yes?" I was clearly trembling with joy and surprise as I said, "YES!" And at that moment, on Winter Solstice, and in one of my favorite places, we were engaged!