We met in 2019 while working at the same fintech startup; Adrian in Brooklyn, Katie in Atlanta. What began as collaboration quickly turned into competitive banter, endless Slack messages, and a close friendship that continued to grow through 2020, fueled in part by a virtual fitness challenge that brought out our competitive sides.

Later that year, Adrian moved to Atlanta, and as close friends, our weekends quickly filled with hikes, city adventures, and Punky...our wingdog and self-appointed third wheel. On one memorable hike up Kennesaw Mountain, Punky escaped, and Adrian chased her down the mountain like a rom-com extra, cementing his reputation as her favorite human (and quietly making Katie swoon). Long before we admitted it, most of the people in our lives had already figured out we were in love. Somewhere between doing yard work, Costco runs, building furniture, tackling overly ambitious home and culinary projects, and traveling for work (including one night in Vegas that ended with 120 chicken tenders ordered on a company card), it became clear we made a pretty good team.

By 2023, what started as friendship had clearly become something more. A trip to Indonesia and Thailand for a friend’s wedding sparked a long-overdue conversation and officially changed everything. From there, life felt easy...because we’d already been building it together. More travel followed quickly: Hawaii, Mexico, Colombia, and many states in between — along with countless inside jokes, shared meals, and cooking our way through nearly 70 countries so far. In September 2025, six years after we first met, Adrian proposed in Tayrona National Park in Colombia — by candlelight on a river in the jungle, with tiny bats fluttering overhead once the sun went down.