We're getting married!

After a year and a half of trial and error in the Seattle dating app scene, Chris may not have found much success, but at least he had a strategy. His app of choice was Bumble, known for empowering women because the female has to send the first message. The idea behind this was to prevent girls from receiving unwanted messages from creepy guys, but Chris appreciated it because it meant he didn’t have the burden of coming up with a smooth opening pickup line. That said, he used his bio to help get the conversation started by including a series of emojis depicting some of his interests, hobbies, and values and offered a warning that he had been “known to wear dinosaur onesies in public.” Despite his deliberate approach, he couldn’t seem to find anyone that lasted more than three dates. Little did he know, his perfect match just wasn’t on the app yet. Excited for a fresh start in Seattle, Grace dove head first into her law school studies, withdrawing from nearly everything else. After returning from a rowdy 2L Spring Break in Vegas with the girls, Grace decided it was time to find some balance—and a man. She downloaded a couple of apps, created her profiles, and went on a few dates. Nothing seemed to click until she bumbled across a onesie-wearing weirdo on April 11th, 2017. She swiped right, and !! they matched !! She opened the conversation by expressing a mutual appreciation for some of Chris’ emojis, then offered some of her own. They had plenty of overlapping interests, but Grace’s emojis also suggested she would get Chris out of his comfort zone (specifically, doing cardio and eating carbs). His interest was piqued, and after a few texts, he offered his number.

After exchanging texts throughout the next few days, Grace boldly proposed taking their relationship offline. Chris was on his way to Whistler for a boys trip that weekend, so they made arrangements to meet up at a local bar the following Monday. Symptomatic of our generation’s short attention span and reluctance to keep commitments, three days of no contact was almost enough for the plans to fall apart. Chris, still recovering from his debaucherous weekend with the boys, and Grace, bogged down with endless law school work, both contemplated bailing on their date. Auspiciously, neither followed through with the cancellation. Chris and Grace met in person for the first time at Capitol Cider on April 17th, 2017. Grace, after tending to a last-minute ripped pants situation (not hers, thankfully), was a few minutes late. Rushing down the stairs, she turned the corner and saw a cute boy in a blue flannel and could only hope it was Chris (spoiler alert: it was!). The next few hours were kind of a blur for both of them, but from the moment the conversation started their walls came down. They talked about everything—even the stuff you aren’t supposed to talk about on a first date, like religion and politics—and before they knew it, it was time to go home. Leaving Capitol Cider, they awkwardly headed in the same direction for a few blocks, but Chris will never forget how Grace’s face lit up when she turned around to hug him goodbye. It was in that moment that he knew this was not another three-date dud.

Fast forward about two years and C&G had moved in together, Grace had graduated from law school, passed the Bar, and was 6 months into her tenure at a prestigious corporate law firm. She was great at her job—evidenced by the staggering amount of work they funneled her way despite her newness. In an attempt to provide a brief period of reprieve, Chris planned a surprise trip to Maui for Grace’s 27th birthday. Two weeks later, on the morning of April 11th, 2019, Grace boarded a plane bound for Hawaii for the first time in her life. When they got to the hotel, Chris eagerly suggested checking out the pool and wandering around the resort grounds, but Grace, ever-diligent, wanted to finish her last piece of work before entering vacation mode. Visibly distraught, Chris suggested every possible justification to procrastinate in favor of watching the sunset, but she insisted that work came before play. Fifteen minutes later, as if she had been playing him the whole time, Grace had a change of heart and agreed to finish her work later. They wandered through the pool area, gradually making their way to the ocean. They sat down on a ledge with their legs dangling over the ocean as they watched the sunset, expressing mutual wonderment over its beauty. As they talked, Chris tried to subtly steer the conversation in an increasingly sentimental direction. When the conversation reached the appropriate tone, he said, “when we met two years ago today, I imagined my life with you for the first time, and now I can’t imagine it without you...” And you know the rest ;)