Told by Claire Brandon and I met during the summer of 2012. I used to visit family in Sacramento every summer to enjoy the hot weather and during one of those visits, my cousin's good friend Brandon was having a house party. Brandon--being very social, introduced himself to me as I was someone he hasn't seen around before. We eventually lost track of time and didn't realize that we were talking the whole time while I was there. As I was leaving his house, I noticed him running out of the front door approaching me and courageously asked for my number. That was the first moment we knew we wanted to know more about each other. It wasn't until a few months later we planned to hang out again with a group of our friends and I remember having so much fun that night, we decided we wanted to hang out more often. Since then, for 3 years, we took turns driving back and forth every weekend from Daly City to Sacramento just to spend more time together. After I graduated my community college back home, we were motivated to open a new chapter together as a couple and I made the decision to move to Sacramento to not only further my education at Sac State, but to continue our love story in the same city. Although we never really had an exact date when we decided to be an official couple, we both remember the very first time we said "I love you". I remember every detail of that day and every emotion I felt--it was truly one of the happiest days of my life. That day was March 26th, 2013 and that was the day we decided that was our official "date". The rest is history!

Told by Brandon The day has came to start looking for the perfect ring. I had so many questions about where to start, so I snuck off to a local jeweler in Tracy by myself. During my visit, I was educated on diamonds from size, color, and quality, which made me more confused than ever. I didn't realize picking the perfect diamond could be so difficult. Our son and my mom came to help me with diamond hunting and we went to a jeweler in Sacramento. We looked at so many diamonds, but it was hard for me to decide on which one, but once I saw the perfect diamond, I knew it was IT. We had a trip planned to Hawaii where I was going to surprise Claire with the ring. I had everything planned out perfectly. Then COVID came and everything changed and I had to make new plans fast. I secretly showed off the ring to both sides of our family and each side showed endless support for us and were so excited for our new beginning. I had to hide the ring from Claire in my closet, where I'd find myself taking random trips to and make sure it was still there. Just when I thought the hard part was over, it wasn't. I had to ask permission from Claire's dad, aka Papa. With social distancing, it made things difficult to ask him in person. So it started by telling him I needed to FaceTime him for no apparent reason. That call went great and he told me that of course I could marry Claire and that he knows that I will always take care of her and Hayden. So now with new plans during a pandemic, I decided to pop the question on our 7th year anniversary at home during a nice dinner. Talk about being a nervous wreck, I could barely even finish cooking dinner with all the things running through my mind. I wasn't even able to eat from all the nerves I was feeling. The moment came and I told Claire I had a surprise for her before dinner. I got on one knee while holding the ring in one hand and our son in the other, and boom! She said yes! That moment I became the luckiest man on earth.