❤️

Like many couples over the past two years, recent events have caused us to re-evaluate some parts of our decision to hold a large gathering during a worldwide pandemic: In short, we are requiring vaccination against COVID-19 to attend our event. In long, we are encouraging our guests to consider the vaccine if they haven't already. However, we respect that there are many walks of life and everyone has had very different experiences with this virus over the past year and a half. One of the things that is most exciting to me about having a gathering of so many people after such a long year is that we get to share those experiences. This past year has been traumatic for us. We lived through the beginning of the pandemic in a city where many people around us or who we knew passed away, were severely hospitalized, lost otherwise healthy family members, or experienced long term symptoms that have wrecked their life and livelihoods. For us the trade-off was clear, but for other people the situation may be more complicated. We would rather take a new (but tested) vaccine than roll the dice on a breakthrough infection of our friends and family. Being vaccinated means that there's one less potential infection that contributes to further mutation of variants and uncertainty in our community as well. If vaccination isn't a choice that you feel comfortable making, We are planning to set up a live stream of the event and ship celebration packages to those folks who aren't able to attend in person. Please know that we will not be offended or upset in the slightest if you are unable to come in person — you mean a lot to us, and we would still love to have you involved in our big day! If you're planning on celebrating remotely, please let us know as soon as possible so we can ship you celebration gifts and keep you in the loop about ways to be involved. Thanks for bearing with us through the short and long of our personal experiences on this. We hope to see you soon!

Dennis and Anna met in 2015 while attending and teaching at a web development bootcamp. As soon as Anna transferred to a different role. she made up her mind to ask Dennis out — only to have him beat her to the punch by mere seconds! The two of them moved in together the next year, adopted their mutt Markov, and have been figuring out life together ever since.