Meet Stephen, a grandpa at heart who prefers to end his evenings with a glass of whiskey and a pipe. And then there's Sierra; someone who bounces off the walls and believes in filling EVERY moment with events or adrenalin inducing activities EVERY day (at least until the caffeine high wears off). And they're getting hitched!

Stephen and Sierra met on a summer evening on August 11th, 2021. Sierra's church group had gone on break for the Summer. But her pastor, knowing her love of planning social events, had asked her to continue planning some hangouts for the group while they were on break. She obviously said, "Of course!" and he promptly sent her the numbers of 15 people he had been texting every week inviting to community group. So on a Wednesday, August 11th, Sierra planned a church hang to watch sunset at Kate Sessions Park, and she did indeed text and invite those 15 random numbers her pastor had given her; one of which, was Stephen Thomas Stageberg. And guess who responded to a random girl's text, and showed up to Kate Sessions Park! Sierra remembers very little from that day (except that her friend brought snacks). Stephen, on the other hand, remembers that he wore a jacket and shorts; that he sat on a random person’s towel (and now vows to never go anywhere without a chair); that Sierra brought Guinness and he brought IPAs; and he also remembers thinking "Well, she's fun and kinda cute." Despite his feelings that Sierra was cute, Stephen had just joined King’s Cross Church that week, and figured he should get more plugged in before making moves at a girl. So, Stephen and Sierra didn't actually hangout much after that first meeting. They’d see each other every week at church group and at church on Sunday. But that was about it.

But then, after about 6 months, Stephen started to make his moves. He noticed that Sierra planned lots of large church outreach events, and conveniently, started offering to help prep for all of them. Over the next year, any time Sierra'd post in the church chat, "Hey, anyone free and want to help me put together items for [insert church event]" Stephen would promptly respond, "I'm free!" From passing out flyers, to tying on info tags to bubbles, to putting labels on 200+ water bottles, any crazy outreach idea Sierra had, Stephen would be right there helping put it into action. ...And that may or may not have been when Sierra started noticing him...

With the help of her wing-women, Michelle and Kennedy, Sierra promptly started planning additional hangouts (that didn't include prepping for a church event) to get more face time with Stephen. They planned beach hangs, coffee hangs, art hangs, movie nights, and more. And each time, Michelle or Kennedy would make sure Stephen got the invite. One fateful hang was at the Living Room Coffeehouse. Stephen had been invited to come by Michelle. He unfortunately replied, “aw man, sorry, I’ll be at the run club tonight and don’t think I’ll be done soon enough.” Michelle promptly replied, “Good thing you run fast…” And with the encouragement, Stephen did indeed run quite fast, and zoomed on over to the hangout.

Then, after many MANY hangs, in December of 2022, Sierra and Kennedy had received invites to a fancy corporate party (through one of their work vendors) at the Skybox in downtown San Diego. And when Michelle tragically turned Sierra down as being her +1, Kennedy and Sierra had the grand idea of inviting “the boys” (Stephen and Peyt), to be their +1’s. As a bit of a fun joke, Kennedy and Sierra showed up with flowers and chocolates, held doors open for the boys, memorized stupid pickup lines, and gave them their jackets when they were “cold.”

As we’re learning, Sierra’s version of boldness is to plan and invite you to multiple events. On the other hand, Stephen’s version of boldness is to just ask you out directly. So that night, December 5th, 2023, after a lovely fake date at the Skybox Christmas Event, Stephen sat Sierra down and said, “Soooo, I had a great night, do you think we should date?” Sierra, even AFTER PLANNING A FAKE DATE, decided to have a little internal freakout, and much to Stephen’s chagrin, said, “hmmm, we should think about it.” We’ve learned that Sierra processes emotions by first, panicking; then, by asking her friends and mentors what they think of a decision; and then, coming back and realizing Stephen was probably right from the beginning. (Sierra did indeed talk to Michelle, and her mentor, and their pastor, about dating Stephen. And Stephen also called up their pastor to see his thoughts, as well).

After Sierra’s freakout, with the confidence of her friends and mentors backing them, Stephen and Sierra decided to go on their first OFFICIAL date. On January 16, 2023, Stephen picked Sierra up for their date at the Art Museum. Sierra was cute; Stephen was cuter. Turns out, Stephen was right, dating was a good idea.