Despite having many mutual friends, living next door to each other, and being at many of the same concerts, parties and restaurants together over years, our paths didn’t cross until we’d each suffered through years of online dating. Like all great modern love stories, ours started with a swipe. During those hard years, I’d developed a practice not to agree to a first date that lasted longer than an hour. Marcus wanted to impress me with his restaurant connections around town, and offered to take me to dinner anywhere I wanted to go, but I told him we could meet for a beer or coffee, and take it from there. We met at Jungle, the tiki bar off of Pearl street, on a Tuesday afternoon in September 2019. I walked there, and was late, and found Marcus already a drink in with the bartender, an old friend of his. Just as I sat down, it started to rain outside. Our bartender put on Rupert Holme’s Escape (the Pina Colada Song) and passed out pina coladas to the whole bar. One hour turned into three, turned into six years together. Through those years, we’ve dined, traveled, danced, worked, loved, and lost. We’ve moved together twice. My friends have become his, his friends have become mine. Our families have come together to share birthdays and holidays and regular days. We have built a home in a tiny mountain town and filled it with soft funky furniture, art, and instruments. We couldn’t be happier. Marcus proposed on April 30, 2024 while we were walking the dog, and I proposed right back, for feminism. We took the opportunity to whisper our vows to each other under the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel during a bucket list trip to Europe that following summer- but we wanted to wait to make it official until you could be there. We’ve talked a lot about what it means for us to share this next step with you, our people, in our new home. We’re so grateful for all of the loving you’ve done of the both of us to lead us to ourselves, to each other, and into this commitment. You are the loves of our lives, and we’re so excited to celebrate with you.