We attended Robert Down Elementary and Pacific Grove Middle for three years before we officially met. Evan's best friend, Elias, knew Anna from drama club. One fateful night, the three were at mutual friend's party, when Elias suggested Evan talk to Anna. The rest could have been history, but we were only 13 years old and had a lot of living and learning to do still. After separating as Freshman at Pacific Grove High School, we remained friendly (as best as two teens could do at least). After high school, we went our separate ways. Evan to SLO and Anna to Long Beach State. We kept in touch and Anna even visited Evan on a trip home to PG. Ultimately, Anna moved to San Francisco and Evan to Colorado. However, we were always there for each other when called. We have always come to the other's side in a time of need. Evan pursued his career in Colorado for 8+ years and Anna worked on getting her license to practice law in California. In 2018, Evan had decided he no longer wanted to stay in Colorado. We had reconnected again over the 2017 Christmas holidays and had kept in close touch since then. When Anna heard Evan's plans, her interest was sparked. She started playing the long game to convince Evan to move to Sacramento, where she was currently living. And just her luck, he said "yes". Now, the rest was history. Evan's agreement to move to Sacramento set the stage for Anna to say "yes" to forever on December 3, 2021. We went to Anna's cousin's wedding earlier that day. After picking up the ring earlier that day, in his PG home, Evan told Anna that he was so swept up by the love that night, he could not wait any longer to spend forever with her and asked if she would "put up with his bull**** for the rest of her life". It was the perfect private moment. Special thanks goes to Elias Talbot, Carly and Zach Blazer for their roles in this love story! We cannot wait to get our life started as Mr. and Mrs. Parise!

Wedding dates are hard to set for all kinds of reasons. We chose our date for a very specific reason (after going through many options). We wanted our date to be a symbol of our marriage and joining our lives together. So we wanted numbers that meant something to both of us for what ever reason. Anna's birthday is September 9th and Evan's birthday is May 19th. These were the days we each came to be as individuals, so we chose to become Mr. and Mrs. on a day that joined those two days together, regardless of the day of the week it fell on.

Back when we met in middle school, we got to joke around as kids do when they are "official". One of the trends that was going around was to indicate the couple by the numbers in their names (example: John Doe and Penny Smith were dating, she might write 55 <3 43). Well Anna remembers this because she thought it was suppppper cute that Anna Lucido and Evan Parise was 46 <3 46. When we got older, Anna also realized that their entire names would be equal as her full name is Anna Maria Lucido (456) and Evan's full name is Evan Belew Parise (456). So Anna's married name will not change according to this middle school game, just a fun little tidbit to share with our guests!