Kate and Dallas met through a mutual friend that she had known since high school and he had known since college. During the pandemic, Dallas moved out of LA and back to the Bay Area, where he moved in with this mutual friend. One day, Dallas came home for a quick change before heading out to meet up with another friend, but was stopped and introduced to Kate, who was sitting in his kitchen. They talked for a few minutes and learned that they both liked art and to paint. Dallas showed Kate a painting of a black hole he had made, which surprised Kate because she was currently fascinated with learning about black holes. They also found out that they both had a love for weird movies, to which Dallas mentioned that he was actually on his way to meet up with a friend to see a movie at the theater. Kate asked him what movie he was seeing, expecting it to be some weird, obscure film, and he replied, “Shrek”. Kate thought he was joking as he left to “go see Shrek”, but he did in fact go to the theater to see the 20th anniversary showing of Shrek. After a few more times of seeing each other in group settings, they started hanging out one on one, and have never left each other since.

Let us tell you a tale of countless proposals. Our engagement story started on a rainy morning in Sonoma. Our camping weekend was cut short by torrential downpour that soaked through our tent at about 5 am. We packed up our tent in the pouring rain and drove to a local coffee shop for some warmth. And there, sitting at the bar, waiting for some breakfast and coffee, among all but three other people, Kate asked Dallas to marry her. And Dallas said, “it’s only been six months…shouldn’t we wait?” (he really wanted to say yes, and had already talked to his friend Taylor (best man) about wanting to ask Kate to marry him, but was advised to wait until at least 9 months in). Then, on Valentine’s Day at the Watsonville beach, it had been 8 months. It was a beautiful, foggy, full moon night. The moon was shining through the clouds and you could see everything on the beach. The fire was crackling and the ocean was lapping at the shore. Dallas got down on one knee but did not have a ring at the time. Kate said yes, but was also thinking, “where is my ring?” A few months later, we went to Monterey to visit the Salvador Dali Museum. While there, Kate mentioned how she wished she had an engagement ring, so Dallas led Kate across the street and into a jewelry store, but they seemed completely uninterested in helping, so we left and made our way to an outdoor street fair, where Dallas bought Kate four different rings. This began the ring exchange. We decided to make a game where we proposed to each other back and forth, with a new ring, increasing the value of the ring little by little. The next time was at a Half Moon Bay bed and breakfast. Kate sneakily set up the room with lights, rose petals, and a hand painted ring box. The ring she got however, was three sizes too big. After that, we did an engagement/ Christmas card photo shoot in the olive tree forest in Pleasanton, where Dallas surprised Kate with another proposal and ring. Then we were cleaning the kitchen when Kate proposed with a ring, and Dallas said “hold on wait!” And ran to grab a ring box with a ring and an Uno Reverse card. He slapped the card down and then also got down on one knee. Then was the time in the living room where Kate tied a string to Dallas’ finger and slid the ring on from across the room. The last (potentially?) time was when Dallas took Kate to her favorite restaurant (Metro Lafayette) for breakfast, then down memory lane to all the places they had gone on their first date in San Francisco, and then ended the day at a water lantern festival where we got to decorate and launch our lanterns. Dallas had written a poem on his lantern that ended with “Will you marry me?” and inside the lantern was a ring box with a beautiful ring with a gold band alexandrite stone.