Our story begins where it almost ended, at the Costco in Richmond, California –– a few miles north of the UC Berkeley campus. It was there where Eric waited in line with several shopping carts fully loaded with party provisions on the afternoon of March 3rd, 2018. That evening was the fraternity formal, and Mackenzie had been set up with Eric as a "blind date" by a mutual friend. Eagerly loading up the last few cases of the now-discontinued 48 packs of Kirkland Light beer, Eric's phone buzzed. A text from Mackenzie's yet-to-be-saved number: "omg you're gonna hate me". Irreverent roommate drama had transpired between Mackenzie's housemates, and to bury the hatchet they had all decided to go out together that night. Mackenzie was torn--she felt an obligation to the commitment she had already made to Eric, but having never even met him she thought it could easily be another date party set-up that amounts to nothing more than hollow dialogue and a minor hangover. She consulted her mother, and Eric persisted a bit longer. He begged if there was any way at all for her to fit both events into the evening, but her mother said something that stuck with her: "Who knows, maybe you'll marry this guy". After a dinner date and a few hours at the formal dance, Mackenzie left to see her roommates. But she vowed to return and she did. We spent the next week by each others' sides; ordering Uber Eats, skipping class, and spending every waking minute just talking. Somewhere between the night of March 9th and the morning of March 10th, 2018, we made our relationship "official". We spent the rest of our junior year at Berkeley together, and when the Summer came around Eric had accepted an internship in Washington, DC. But the distance was no obstacle, and we knew it was purely temporary. We kept in close communication, and visited each other –– shrunk the distance and made it work. We then kicked off our final year at college and had no idea what we wanted to do, but we knew we'd do it together. For our last college Winter Break, we planned a road trip around the Southeast. We started in Ohio, where Eric's parents lived at the time, then made our way south to Nashville where over a plate of Martin's BBQ we decided we were going to move there. We went through 14 more states and made memories to last a lifetime. Travel has always been our favorite thing to do with each other, and we've since traveled all over the world together. We currently live in Nashville with our two beautiful rescue dogs, Bandit and Bennie. In our free time, we love to travel, explore Nashville's culinary scene, go to concerts and movies, read, write, and appreciate quality time together.
On January 26th, 2022, Mackenzie was taking a trip to Key West to photograph Mile0Fest for Kaitlin Butts. Eric decided to come to Key West as well and drove 18 hours to be there. Little did Mackenzie know, Eric had picked up the engagement ring on his way down. That Wednesday morning they went to the beach with Kaitlin. When the pier was clear, Eric gave Kaitlin their film camera to get some photos of them walking on the pier. As Mackenzie looked away trying to look "natural" for candid photos, Eric got down on one knee.