CELEBRATE WITH US

To set the scene, it was May 2018. Brian had just moved back to Portland after an 18-month stint working remotely in Sacramento. Michaela had been living here for nearly two years, having moved out with her best friend Shelby after graduating from Boston University. They met for the first time at Irving Park in Portland for co-ed rec league softball. A few weeks into the season, some teammates decided to go for drinks at a bar called Donnie Vegas. Brian was already there, sitting on the back patio, when Michaela and her two roommates walked in. Michaela chose to take the open seat next to Brian and the rest was history. The next weekend, Brian threw a little get-together with friends and slyly invited Michaela to join. She was surprised to see that it was all couples, except for her friend Heather who she had brought along to avoid feeling awkward. They enjoyed some snacks and ping-pong at Brian's house before going bar-hopping in SE Portland. At Bit House, one such bar, Brian and Michaela were asked to film an ad for Travel Oregon. They were instructed to "act naturally" and pretend they were on a date. Michaela made a lot of bad jokes, but five years later, they still consider this day, May 19, 2018, their first date as a couple. Seven months later, Brian would join Michaela on Cape Cod to meet her family for the first time. Alongside Michaela's dad and nephews, Brian witnessed Tom Brady throw a touchdown at Gillette Stadium. Then, mere hours later, the two boarded a flight to Barcelona, Spain for their first international trip together. When they got back to the States, Brian went house-hunting and ended up purchasing a 1930's home in Vancouver that we now call Alta House. A year later, in March 2020, Michaela moved out of the apartment she shared with Shelby and moved in with Brian, begrudgingly crossing the river to live in Washington. They spent many days at home together over the next year, drinking wine outside in the rain after their work days ended, building a backyard patio, and taking walks through the Fort with their dog Brad(y). In January 2021, they added to the fun by welcoming a black lab puppy (Bochy) that they had found on Craigslist and picked up in a Fred Meyer parking lot. Shortly after welcoming Bochy, and after four years of protest over a president who shall not be named, Brian finally cut his hair (much to Michaela's delight) and no longer rocked the man bun. Later that year, Michaela was accepted into law school and chose to attend Lewis and Clark in Portland, OR to keep their little family together at Alta House. After the pandemic, Michaela joined Brian on a business trip to his company's headquarters in Portugal. From there, the two hopped over for a vacation in Italy. They enjoyed pasta and Aperol spritzes in Rome and then excitedly met up with Michaela's brother Will and his wife Morgan. Together, they spent time in Naples and the Amalfi Coast before driving down the windy Italian countryside to San Sossio Baronia, Avellino where they attempted to track down the Giuggio ancestry. The following summer, Brian planned a road trip with Michaela and his parents around Ireland, where they would try to trace back the ancestry of the Richards (and Goudys on Brian's mom's side). It was along the Ring of Kerry (at a remote beach called St. Finan's Bay) on the morning of their 5-year anniversary that Brian got down on one knee and proposed. And that gets us to this moment here, the wedding that we are thrilled to share with you all. Also, FYI: We are not actually changing our last name to Riuggio. In fact, we both quite like our given names and are choosing to keep them. However, since we prefer not to hyphenate and wanted to find an unofficial name for our little family, one night over a bottle of wine we joked about blending our two names together, and "The Riuggios" (Roo-Gee-Ohs) was born.