Kristen and I met during the summer before our freshman year at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. We both received scholarships to play sports at Cal Poly, Kristen played basketball and I played football. At the time, there were usually two sports teams sharing the weight room at once. It just so happened that the women’s basketball team was the sport that we shared lifting times with. As I finished my first set of squats, I looked towards the front of the weight room and there she was pretending to do dumbbell curls (and looked gorgeous while doing it). My brother Gabe noticed me staring and said, “Are you going to go talk to her or are you going to wait for somebody else to shoot their shot?” I quickly walked over and blurted out the first thing that came to mind, which was “You look like you’re from LA.” She replied with a big smile on her face and said, “Yes, I’m from Carson”. We exchanged a few more words and then I got yelled at by our strength coach in front of the entire football and women’s basketball team for talking to her during our lift. I went back to my workout but I was still plotting in my head. I saw her walking out of the weight room (knowing she did not finish the lift), so I left the weight room early to catch her before she walked into the locker room. I asked her for her number, and that is how our love story began.

Chris has always been good at surprises, and this is one that I will never forget. When I tell you he planned every detail, I mean EVERY detail. He planned a hair appointment a few days before to make sure my hair was done, and he even planned an argument to throw me off (and it worked so well). He also planned a girls night so that my girls can distract me and make sure my nails were done. FYI, this was at the beginning of the pandemic so all nail salons were closed but Chris knows I would have panicked if my nails weren’t done when he proposed lol! The morning of the proposal, Chris and I planned to go to brunch in Redondo Beach. We parked in a structure that we never park in when we go there so of course I asked why. Chris said that he wanted to take photos before we go to brunch and I love a good photo opp so I didn’t think anything of it. After taking photos, we started walking toward the restaurant and noticed two people that looked like they were filming something. They approached us, mentioned that they were filming for an upcoming Netflix movie, and asked us if we can be extras in the movie. Of course Chris and I agreed, so they instructed us to stand back to back and gave us scripts to practice with. I had two lines, Chris had one, and we were instructed to turn around at the same time to face each other after we finished our lines. We practiced a few times, and then it was time for the final take. After I read my last line, I tuned around and saw Chris on one knee with the most beautiful ring. I cried my lashes off and I am pretty sure I said yes before he even finished asking. The “film crew” were in on it the whole time and I still cannot believe I didn’t see this coming. After the proposal, we went back to his grandad’s house to show his parents. Once we walked in, our close friends and immediate family were all there for a surprise celebration. I cried more lashes off and had the best time celebrating forever with my fiiaaanncceee!