Brian and I meet at the end of 7th grade at our yearbook signing at Shelton Intermediate School. It wasn’t again until 8th grade that we came face to face again being that we were in the same cluster together. We very quickly became very close friends and spent most of our time together. We spent most of our time counting our money (change) to go to Artan’s, a lot of time down at the little league field, and Lauren always demanding one of Brian’s oversized hoodies or sweat pants! Through the years we grow apart but always remained a constant in each other’s lives. In 2013 Lauren went through a couple rough patches and we rekindled our friendship. It was just like the old days. A year later Lauren moved to California and we always made sure to keep in touch wether it was through a quick text or a FaceTime call. For a couple years I begged Brian to come out and in 2016 he finally did just that and came to visit me! We had the time of our lives! Brian’s first time to Disneyland, first Lakers game and first time in California! Over the course of the week each day we both started to realize things were changing between us! At one of Kobe’s last games as a Laker, Brian looked at Lauren while waiting for our food order and said “ I know this isn’t us babe” and leaned down to kiss me. Right at that moment our entire friendship flashed before my eyes. We were both so scared but so excited! A couple days later Brian went back home. In those next couple of days we talked about wether we should do this or not. March 19, 2016 we started dating. That same year Lauren moved back to Connecticut so we didn’t have to do long distance. Brian knew how much I didn’t want to be there and one night before bed he looked at me and said let’s move to California together! I couldn’t believe my ears! After much discussion we decided to drive cross country to California. We have now been out here for 5 years and have enjoyed making new memories together! Here we are now planning the day of our dreams… Our Wedding!

Memorial Day weekend 2021 is one we will never forget. We spent the weekend up in beautiful Bass Lake swimming, taking the boat for a ride and eating all the good food. Before we left for the weekend Brian kept asking me if I had the tri pod with me and I was curious why he kept asking as I’m the one who loves the pictures not him. I had this feeling that this was the weekend but there were a couple times that he throw me off and I started thinking maybe next time. We went on our usual ride in the golf cart around the lake. We stopped at a spot to take some pictures. There wasn’t many people around and I thought it would be just like any other time just us with my crazy pose ideas and a tri pod. Little did I know Brian had another idea in mind! I said let’s take some pictures with our backs turned looking at the lake! Brian knew this was his shot! I was facing out waiting for him to come join me and it was taking a while. I started to look over my shoulder and as I go to turn around he is on one knee. Everything around me stopped. As much as I was shocked there was a little piece of me that knew! My best friend was asking me to be his wife and spend our lives together. Thankfully he got the whole thing on video and we will have that for the rest of our lives to look back on!