Our story began on June 26th, 2019. While Bryan was visiting his family in California, we matched on a dating app and decided to meet for afternoon drinks at Charmaine's Rooftop Bar in San Francisco. Besides Bryan arriving 30-minutes late and almost not being let in by the bouncer, the date went surprisingly well! After parting ways, we decided to meet later that evening at Pier 39 for our second date. Bryan left the next day on a family trip to Yosemite and was planning to return home to New York soon after. However, Bryan pitched the idea of staying in California for an extra week, so we could get to get to know each other more. That extra week was nothing short of magical, and the rest was history.

Through long distance, we managed to see each other every 3-4 weeks, spending time in both New York and the Bay Area, meeting each other’s friends and families, and taking our first few trips together to Seattle, Vancouver, Tahoe, Miami, and Montana. Some of our early favorite memories include watching a magic show in San Francisco, kayaking in Monterey, marveling at the Chihuly Glass Museum in Seattle, and ziplining high above the woods in Seattle. One of the silver linings when the COVID-19 pandemic hit was Michael came to New York, and we spent our first few months living together. We learned to cook new recipes, braved trips to the grocery store, and mastered our Mario Kart skills. Michael officially moved to New York in January 2021 with his corgi, Sora, and we moved into our first apartment together.

In October 2021, on Bryan’s birthday, Michael planned an ‘Amazing Race’ through the city which included a doors-off helicopter ride and concluded in Central Park where he proposed in front of all of Bryan’s friends. In December, Bryan planned a counter-proposal at Charmaine’s Rooftop Bar in San Francisco, where Michael and Bryan first met, with Bryan and Michael’s friends and family performing a flash mob to Bruno Mars' “Marry You.”