Our love story began the way most classic romances do— with a game of beer pong during college. Mutual friends and a chance change in plans set the stage for my friends and I to end up at a small gathering at the townhouse occupied by Geno and his roommates. To say it was love at first sight sounds overly cliché and I don't actually believe in it, but I know the moment I met Geno was as close as it gets. Nearly 10 years later, and I still feel a rush of butterflies in my stomach when I think about it. There was an undeniable spark. It was an amazing night full of great friends (who we’re still close with today), fun music, sideache-inducing laughter, and (for Geno and I) flirtatious, yet competitive, beer pong games. It culminated in Geno and I making scrambled eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches together in the wee hours of the morning. Not by accident, our groups of friends started hanging out pretty regularly after that night and eventually, in a moment of bravery, I sent my cell phone number to Geno on Facebook without any other explanation. Luckily, no explanation was needed and he wasted little time in inviting me to go hiking at Torrey Pines, where we shared our first date. The rest is history.

I knew that Caitlin was the one not long after we first began dating back in 2010— it only took me about 8 years (living in 2 states and sharing 5 apartments together + 1 dog) to make it official! But in the spring of 2018 the timing was finally right. There was only one place I could imagine proposing, and that was the Torrey Pines hiking trails in La Jolla, where Caitlin and I had our first date. With her medical school graduation coming up in a few weeks, we had a great excuse to spend a long weekend in San Diego, so I began making the preparations. I enlisted one of Caitlin's best friends (Maid of Honor, Joanna Stapleton) to play photographer, a role she excitedly agreed to, and carefully hid the ring in my backpack, checking every 2 seconds that it was still secure. As we were hiking up to the trails at Torrey Pines, the nerves finally started to hit. I wasn't exactly sure where I was going to pop the question, but as we made our way to one of the best overlooks on the trails, I was surprised that we were relatively alone. I double checked that Joanna, disguised in large sunglasses and a big straw hat, was still within camera shot behind us, and dropped to a knee to propose. It turned out exactly as I had imagined. We finished our short hike and headed into Del Mar for a celebratory drink and to call our families and friends. *Special shout out to Caitlin's other good friend Kelly, and her husband Matt, who lent us their apartment for the weekend, and had arranged a few bottles of champagne and flowers to be left there for us when we got back.