Let's do this!

If you had to point to one thing that brought us together (other than fate), it would have to be Husky Football. Just a couple nights before the Huskies played at Stanford, the usual festivities ensued: alumni and friends reunited while bar-hopping throughout the Marina District of San Francisco. And just weeks after moving to the City, Claire met Laurent at Monaghan's, one of the neighborhood's most revered dive bars. Surrounded by familiar UW faces, Claire immediately stood out to Laurent, and with a slick move of sharing the complimentary popcorn (her favorite snack) that the bar served, he struck up a conversation with his future wife. That weekend we saw each other on and off at other social gatherings and at the football game itself. Less than a week later, Laurent invited Claire on their first date the night before her 24th birthday. From that point on we were inseparable, living no more than a few blocks away from each other in the Marina/Russian Hill neighborhoods (anything further would've been too "long distance"), before moving in together.

Five months after moving back to Seattle, Laurent planned a weekend getaway to celebrate the four year anniversary and Claire's birthday. The surprise was to go back to San Francisco together for the first time since moving away to visit our old haunts and see friends. The weekend started out unassuming, with dinner on Friday, Soul Cycle in the morning, followed by the quintessential San Francisco brunch. And per usual, Laurent wanted to go for a long walk to the bottom of the Golden Gate Bridge where he'd often drag Claire on long runs against her will. Once inside Fort Point and overlooking the Bay in the shadow of the bridge, Laurent stumbled his way through some nonsensical words... but luckily the ring spoke for itself. And Claire's vigorous head-nodding sealed the deal. Upon our long walk back, we "happened to" cross paths with our parents and some of our closest friends who had flown in for the big surprise. Celebrations ensued with bubbles, then followed by a magical dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in the city where, unbeknownst to Laurent, Claire had always imagined their engagement dinner would be.