Celebrate Our Wedding with Us

Please explore the photos on the next tab to see more details about the beginnings of our relationship! According to Colleen, COVID was the least ideal thing that ever could have happened to society. In March of 2020, Colleen was a fourth-year medical student, eagerly awaiting Match Day, where she would find out where she would complete her general surgery residency. As the world shut down, she fled home to Utah. She and her family watched with great disappointment as eagerly-anticipated milestones such as her Match Day and Medical School Graduation from Tulane University disappeared into a ghost of their former glory, with backyard celebrations over Zoom replacing in-person affairs. She soon started her surgical intern year at the University of Utah, seeing consults in a PAPR, operating in an N95, and keeping overnight vigils at ICU bedsides, wondering if things would ever go "back to normal." Meanwhile, Doug took the COVID shutdown in stride. He has had a longtime love for the outdoors, and used the opportunity to sublet his San Francisco apartment, and hit the road with long-time friend, Chase Fieger and his now-wife Lizzie. He spent time in Deer Valley, Big Sky Montana, and other picturesque towns, all while working remotely for Aetos, a Silicon Valley Fund of Funds. By winter, he joined his friends from Stanford Business School Graham Wookey and Stephen Bay at a long-term AirBnB in Murray UT, where they worked from home by day, and skied as often as they could. We met during Doug's time here in Utah, and Colleen jokes that Doug "catfished" her, by making it seem like he lived here at first. While some people didn't love the idea of dating a surgery resident, Doug saw it in a positive light- at least Colleen was fully-vaccinated since she worked in healthcare! Colleen soon became a frequent visitor to "the frathouse", as Stephen and Doug had nicknamed the Airbnb. Colleen and Doug (and often Stephen too haha) cooked dinners together, made Lava Cakes (in the blendah!), watched movies, played endless board games, skied often, and tried to ignore the minor detail that Doug didn't actually live in Utah. After Colleen had spent the first 9 months of her surgical intern year on tough rotations with frequent 24h call, she then "catfished" Doug by conveniently meeting him while she was at the VA Hospital (where there are often more residents on service than patients). Her VA rotation was followed by breast surgery, and finally an off-service rotation on anesthesia (Both of which had limited weekend and overnight work). Doug determined (erroneously) that surgery residency wasn't that bad, and after his lease ran out on the Airbnb, he agreed to keep dating Colleen, even after he moved back to his "real life" in San Francisco. The couple took a trip to Hawaii together during a vacation week early on, and then dated long-distance for about a year. Colleen became a regular on the Friday night SWA flight to Oakland, and when she inevitably got trapped in the OR, she became a regular on the early Saturday morning flight as well. Doug set up a desk in Colleen's apartment and worked from Utah whenever his office went back to remote work, and eventually befriended Colleen's cat Olive as his new coworker. Doug finally was able to find a new fully-remote job at Haidar Capital, a NYC-based hedge fund, and became the only partner in all of U of Utah General Surgery to wake up before his resident counterpart. He moved out to Utah permanently in March of 2022!

During the spring of 2024, Colleen had a feeling Doug was up to something. In fact, when they were planning their trip to Mardi Gras, Doug suggested they go a day early and have a special date night just the two of them. He suggested Colleen plan out her favorite night and hit some of the highlights of her favorite city. Colleen wondered if maybe he was secretly having her plan out her own proposal evening... However, when flight delays made it look like we would have to rebook a new flight and get in a day later, Colleen realized this wasn't the case; Doug wouldn't be so cavalier about changing the flight if he'd been planning on the proposal during that trip. Since her hunch had been wrong, Colleen decided it was better to hold off on guessing about any future plans A month later, Colleen remained committed to not reading too much into anything, including when her friends asked her what she was wearing for their trip to Miami and suggested she bring a favorite white dress. Because it's Colleen, it obviously had a stain on it from the last time she'd worn it, but Doug offered to dry clean it for her in Miami... They arrived off the red eye and Colleen hadn't been able to sleep at all on the plane. Their room at the hotel wasn't ready and Colleen was confused as to why Doug wouldn't take the hotel up on their offer to put them in a different room, as theirs wouldn't be ready for several hours. After all, Doug loves to sleep! They enjoyed the week in Miami and Doug suggested they get a cocktail at a nice bar with a beautiful sunset view over the ocean on Friday evening. Friday arrived and it poured rain all day. Colleen wondered if it was worth still going to the cocktail bar as their surely wouldn't be a nice sunset in the rain. Doug insisted that, yes, they had to still go. At the Champagne Bar, they each got a glass of champagne, and Doug offered to take a picture of Colleen holding the champagne flute. "Something's missing..." Doug mused, looking at the photos. "Like what?" Colleen wondered. "Something like THIS," Doug said, and frantically freed the ring from his linen suit jacket. Colleen screamed "Ah it's happening!" and grabbed the ring from the box and put it on. Doug asked her if that was supposed to mean "yes"? "It's like the exit row of the airplane- I'm going to need a verbal yes" Colleen had forgotten to actually answer in all of her excitement, and assured him that it was in fact, a yes! PS: Doug actually WAS planning to propose in New Orleans, only the ring hadn't arrived in time, so he moved on to Plan B!

We appreciate everyone for making this journey, and I wanted to share a little background about how special the city is to me, and now to Doug as well: Once Upon A Time: My ancestors called New Orleans home long before I did- the clan McDermott fled Cork, Ireland, and landed in the new world at the Port of New Orleans. They settled in the “Irish Channel” neighborhood, and joined other Irish refugees working on the construction of the canal. Childhood Adventures: The McDermott's eventually left NOLA, but my parents traveled there often and had developed their own affinity for the city. My dad and his late brother, Mike, have been long-time jazz enthusiasts, and my mom, my sister Erin, and I had great fun feeding marshmallows to alligators in the swamp, and trying gumbo in the French Quarter in the 90s! Medical School at Tulane: In the fall of 2014, I earnestly sent in applications to medical school and watched rejection letters crawl in, slowly heralding the end of a dream. I started the arduous process of reapplying, and on November 4, 2015, I received an interview invitation from Tulane University School of Medicine, asking me to come to New Orleans! I got the official acceptance letter on December 15, 2015- one of the best days of my life thus far. Before I started there, I read a book called “Five Days at Memorial”, which chronicled the harrowing days following Hurricane Katrina, and helped me learn more about the tragedy that had befallen my new city. Life in NOLA: I'd previously spent five years in Baltimore MD, a similarly troubled city that was also known for its charm and the way it drew people in, almost unwittingly. In NOLA, I similarly had the fortune of meeting incredible friends, and the joy of being welcomed with open arms by New Orleans. My friends and I tried to explore every corner during our limited free time. I tap-danced in a Mardi Gras parade, took selfies with alligators I found while hiking, and was gifted freezer bags full of homemade jambalaya at clinic on my birthday. Several of us taught yoga at a substance-abuse rehabilitation center, Grace House, volunteered in the Musician's Clinic, and learned more about NOLA from every patient we met. We had the privilege of taking care of some of the country's sickest patients who'd been forged with stoicism and grit in a city that had seen so much tragedy, yet remained so beautiful. The city itself shaped a lot of the lessons we learned while becoming doctors, and I'm grateful that TUSOM taught us to see patients in their life's full context. A Missed Opportunity: It was heartbreaking to leave NOLA in 2020- with boarded-up businesses, and goodbyes from six feet apart. My family and friends had planned to come to NOLA to celebrate my medical school graduation, and all of our celebrations unfortunately never happened. And A Second Chance! With enough on my plate in medical school, I'd been single all four years. I'd never been able to share the beauty, food, art, and zest for life that I saw in NOLA with a partner. When I met Doug, I knew that despite him being a “left-brained” math major who favored ski trips, I couldn't wait to share this place with him. Over our time together, he's taken me to places I never thought I'd go (Ie the top of the Highland Bowl bootpack), and I've so enjoyed getting to show him one of my favorite places in the world as well, complete with all of its imperfections. There's an easy romance to nights spent under gnarled oak groves, decorated with Spanish moss and twinkle lights. A wedding in this magical city seemed like the perfect way to kick off our life together, as it reminds me of the certain ease that always underscores our life of adventure, exploration, and beauty amongst both good and hard times. I'm excited to share NOLA with all of you now, and can't wait to see you in June of 2025. Laissez les bon temps rouler!