Our love story began by way of the modern dating world - a dating app, more specifically Bumble. For those unfamiliar, this app requires the girl to reach out first. After having started a conversation with many a "dud", Ali opened the conversation with a very unique and enticing message on Jun 24th, 2019. Just kidding. In reality, she asked if James had any exciting plans for the fourth of July. Luckily James wasn't too unimpressed with her conversation starter and not only replied, but carried on a conversation. Just a day later, he suggested they meet up for coffee or wine. Being the 'wine-os' they have since become, they chose wine and chose to meet at a local wine bar called the Pony Club in Paso. Ali showed up to find James already sitting at a table inside and a joke was made from the waiter about how long he had been there. Surprisingly, Ali was not late...James was just apparently very early. They had a nice conversation over a few glasses of wine and went their separate ways but James got Ali's number, thanked her for a fun evening and mentioned that he couldn't wait to see her again. Just a day later, James texted Ali saying he'd like to see her again and suggested dinner in the near future. They ended up meeting up before that, on the 4th of July, when James went over to Ali's work for the 4th of July parade and when Ali made her coworkers promise not to embarrass her. From then on, the rest is history. 5 years of history..... James and Ali have been through many stories and adventures over the years but one of the most quintessential stories was early on, when James and Ali were still very newly dating, and James had to take Ali to the ER on her birthday. She texted her mom saying, "I sliced my finger and I'm going to go the ER but it's okay, James will take me". Upon getting checked in, the doctor came in and immediately asked "how do you two know each other?" to which Ali panicked not wanting to admit any relationship too soon and scare him off, but without hesitation James replied "We're dating". That is when Ali knew that he was different from the rest of the guys on the app. Over the next 5 years, James and Ali enjoyed countless adventures cooking together (James being head chef and Ali being sous chef), camping trips, summer backyard kiddie pool days, many winery visits, and hosting many a backyard friend hangouts. Eventually they got to experience moving in together and by Ali's persistence...getting a puppy (Kinley!). Five years down the road, James and Ali decided to book a trip for their anniversary. While Ali suspected a proposal was likely to happen within the year, this trip was booked slightly last minute due to work constraints and busy lives, and thus she did not have one inclination that James had time to pull together getting a ring. James and Ali had the best anniversary weekend experiencing a 'new to them' town, Big Bear, complete with a bike ride, gluten-free food and cocktails, playing Yahtzee on the deck of their Airbnb cabin, visiting the wildlife zoo and a fancy anniversary dinner out. After enjoying an amazing dinner of steak, crab, and good wine, they came back to watch a movie. Ali had just changed into pjs when James suggested that they do gifts. Ali immediately started internally panicking, as they had already had a conversation about how they didn't have time for gifts and would save the money for the trip. As soon as Ali could look up from the internal panic, she saw James with a box. From then on, the rest is a blur as Ali proceeded to excitedly scream a series of questions at James - "What is that?!", "What are you doing?", "Is that a ring?". And here we are today, getting ready to commit to a lifetime of adventures with all of the people we love most. Cheers to our love history thus far and a lifetime more of adventures. We can't wait to throw an epic celebration with all our loved ones!