Hello, everyone! It's Jessica. I won't pretend this is a typical two-person narrative because for one, Andrew isn't exactly the Shakespeare of storytelling (if you know, you know). And second, as a die hard fan of rom coms and chick lit I am very excited to share our story featuring my most favorite romantic trope of all time! "The One That Got Away"...turned to a love story of course! This is a wedding page after all. Andrew and I are from different islands, and people often wonder how we managed to stay connected despite the ocean that separated us. When we were in middle/high school, Andrew and I were both part of a youth group called the "Young Buddhists Association" (YBA for short). Each year, one of the islands would host a convention, inviting members from other islands for a weekend filled with icebreakers, workshops, meetings, and end with a fun dance party! During one of these conventions, I found myself randomly rooming with three friendly girls from Maui. As an Oahu native, I was the outsider, but we quickly became friends. One of my roommates had an older brother, who happened to be the association's president and a close friend of Andrew's. He encouraged me to become more involved in YBA, attending meetings throughout the year. I am very easily influenced so I took his advice, and it was at one of these "meetings" that Andrew and I met for the first time. Personally I think this would be considered a meet-cute. There we were at this formal-ish meeting and we started off with ice breakers so we could all get to know each other. Andrew was sitting directly in front of me and he turned around to be my partner for this game. (Picture mean girls scene "can I borrow your pencil") Back in high school, Andrew had crazy surfer hair (highlighted from the sun and very wavy and brown). I thought it was very nice. This was the first thing I noticed about him. Now over a decade later, his hair is more salt than pepper and he sometimes kind of resembles a homeless person. But I digress. We talked for a while during this meeting and got to know each other and eventually added each other on Myspace (yes, Myspace we are old!) we chatted online frequently always checking in on each other's day. There is a two year age gap between Andrew and I so when Andrew graduated from high school, we lost touch for a while. We crossed paths occasionally, but the timing was always off – I was in a relationship, he was in one, I was living in Japan, he was doing...well, typical young boy things. It wasn't until December 2016 that fate finally intervened. We were both recently single, Andrew was living in (Kalihi?) and I was living in Jersey but flying back and forth all the time. Our initial dates were chaotic, to say the least, and it was during the St. Patrick's Day block party in Chinatown that we decided to make it official – we were going to be together! Fast forward a few months, and Andrew packed up his life, said goodbye to his bike (good riddance!), and flew to New Jersey to move in with me while continuing his architecture degree on the East Coast. Eventually, he changed degrees and completed his education online at UH. Two years later, in a spontaneous decision, we relocated to DC, driving down the coast together. In DC, we welcomed a friendly and noisy stray cat named Henry into our lives. Andrew landed his first adult job, I discovered a turtle on the ground (Clifford), and Andrew proposed the idea of moving to California. We bought a house, made the cross-country move, adopted another cat named Banksy, and added a dog named Kome to our growing family. And now, we're here, ready to tie the knot! It is thanks to all of our loved ones' support that has gotten us this far and we are beyond excited to have all of you come together to celebrate this special moment with us!