The year was 2019, and I was still finishing my bachelor’s at Cal State San Marcos. I was casually dating and decided to try a dating app. That’s when I matched with Malcolm in the fall. Our first date was at a coffee shop in Old Town Temecula, but Malcolm swore it was at Lazy Dog. (Spoiler: I was right.) After a few dates, things fizzled out and we went our separate ways, but we stayed connected on Instagram. Fast forward to the summer of 2022, I was in a completely different place. I had spent time working on myself and finally felt genuinely content being single. But one night, I felt this deep wave of emotion and started thinking about my grandma, who had passed. I missed her presence and her wisdom. I prayed to her that night, asking for peace and for guidance. I told her that if someone was truly meant for me, I hoped she could help lead them into my life. Not long after, I randomly re-downloaded Bumble, the same dating app where I had first met Malcolm, and there he was. I sent him a friendly message, and we started catching up. Malcolm and I had been texting for a few days when he asked if I had any plans that night. I told him I was going out with friends in Old Town Temecula. Turns out, he had plans to be there too. He suggested we meet up, and I said sure. While I was waiting in line at a bar, I looked up and saw Malcolm walking over. He gave me a playful finger gun, and I just smiled. It felt easy, familiar, and right. From that night on, we were pretty much inseparable. Three months later, we were heading back to Malcolm’s place after a fun night out with friends, singing along to music and laughing, when he turned to me and said, “So, I’ve been wanting to ask you… do you want to be my girlfriend?” I smiled, said yes, and then, like the dorks we are, we sealed it with a fist bump. Since then, we’ve been building something so real and rooted in love, laughter, and faith. We’ve grown as individuals and as a couple. It still blows my mind that we matched on the same app twice, years apart, but I truly believe it was always meant to be. Now we’re planning our wedding, and I’m just so thankful for every twist and turn that brought us back together. I like to think my grandma had a hand in it. In some quiet way, I know she’s been with me through it all guiding me, protecting me, and smiling at how it all came together. When the timing is right, everything really does fall into place.

My version of when our love story began was in October of 2019. I was currently living with my good friend Ryan Davis (groomsman) and his wife Karrah Davis (bridesmaid). I had been on several dating apps, when I had matched with Ashley on the app called Bumble. Like all “matches”, we talked about all the small talk you could think of. It turned out Ashley had a sliver of time out of her busy schedule to meet with me. This is where it gets fuzzy. I have believed for so long that our first date was at Lazy Dog for some late night happy hour. But Ashley was persistent that we had ours at a coffee shop in Old Town. Like most things in our relationship, Ashley was right. We had our first date at a coffee shop in Old town. BUT our second date was at Lazy Dog! Things were going ok since we both had such busy schedules. After going back and forth on when we would have time to go on another date our time fizzled out. We both went on our separate ways and found different people. We both kept each other on social media so I was always seeing what she was up too and I’m sure Ashely was doing the same. Fast forward to July of 2022. I just got out of a relationship so I figured let’s give this date app one more time. I jumped back on Bumble. And what to I see, Ashley Barajas is also single. So Bumble is an app when you can like someone’s picture but the you can only match with them when the girl likes your profile as well. So I liked her profile and I “matched” with her immediately! (So she had liked my profile before me 😌) We started talking again and we were both questioning each other on why we were back on Bumble. I still had her number, so I asked if I could just text her. We started talking again until we were both in Old Town, Temecula with friends separately. We of course had to meet up! I remember she was in line to go to a bar and I left my group to go and see her. When I saw Ashely again, I immediately fell for her. Her smile, her laugh, the way she carried herself and her beautiful long dark brown hair. We haven’t looked back ever since!❤️