Our love story began like many of this generation: with Amanda deleting a dating app out of frustration with the Seattle dating scene. Shortly after, she received a direct message on Instagram from a Zachary Mills - UW ortho resident and baker of bread. The message was short and sweet, asking her to dinner. Legend has it that Zach’s sister, Jasmine, was on the phone with him saying he shouldn’t have sent that message as it may come off weird at the same time as Amanda replied yes. Two weeks later, they met at a local pizza shop called Blotto. This first date went on for 6 hours as they roamed all around Seattle together. The following week, Zach happened to be working nights on ortho call at UW Northwest Hospital, while Amanda was working nights in the Harborview Emergency Department as an intern. Because of this perfect arrangement, they spent their first week going on dates during the day before splitting ways and going off to work at night. Surprisingly, working nights became a lot more fun for both parties when they could text and slide into each other’s Epic messages (the hospital’s electronic health record system). One week into knowing each other, Zach asked Amanda to be his girlfriend and the rest is history. They’ve spent the past 2.5 years being each others’ rock throughout the craziness of residency, making sure to sprinkle in plenty of fun road trips throughout the Pacific Northwest in between. On Saturday, July 5th, 2025, Zach took a break from studying for his Orthopedic Surgery Boards exam to ask Amanda to go on a walk with him around Lake Washington. It was mid-walk around Amanda’s favorite Seattle walking trail that Zach got down on one knee and asked Amanda to marry him. She was over the moon excited and here you are today reading our story on our wedding page :)