We met back in January 2013 at Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley, CA. Nobody would have thought that we would meet our eventual partner in a bar, but on a Friday night (one month after Z returned home from college and C's 2nd night after moving to Berkeley), our lives would change forever. As fate would have it, Z and two friends walked right up to the bar next to C, his uncle, and best buddy. We hit it off with A TON of help from our friends (shout out to Navarra, Bill, Garrett and some IPA's...) and after a few dates and hours spent together in a competitive job search we decided to give this crazy thing called love a shot...

Although soon into our relationship we knew we were meant to be together, we both had many things we wanted to do and places we wanted to go before we got married. Plus we wanted to spread out the excitement and had plenty of exciting things to do in the 5+ years before we got officially engaged. But since you are reading this for the story... On September 2nd, 2018 we decided to go on a hike, have a romantic picnic and go paddle boating at Lake Chabot Regional Park. You might think there were plenty of opportunities for a romantic proposal during these activities but with Z's strict requirement that she did not want to get engaged in public and C's worry that if he proposed on a paddle boat the ring might end up in the water (definitely a likely possibility with Z's coordination) we headed home. Z decided to take a nap (a one in a million opportunity) giving C the chance to set-up the proposal on the patio. So he took the leftover picnic food and wrote "Will you marry me?" in cheese, olives, almonds, and pickles (everything Z loves). Once Z woke up, C brought her out on the porch with champagne to celebrate their "5th anniversary of living in our apartment" and popped the question - it was the perfect low key proposal for us followed by a very romantic dinner to cap off an amazing day that we will never forget.

After creating an amazing life together in Oakland, achieving many career goals, building friendships, and going on some amazing vacations, we decided the time was right to make progress on more of our life goals before taking our next step. 33 States, 25 countries, and countless travel and adventure memories later, we moved to Portland and eloped at Panther Creek Falls in Southern Washington. One strange year later, we cannot wait to celebrate our marriage together at Home Place Farm with the people we love!