*** Kurt and I first met briefly in high school- he drove my friend and I to Taco Bell on our lunch break. This was definitely against the rules which made me nervous, but Kurt was a certified bad boy and I wasn't going to be a nerd about it. Nothing remarkable really happened that day. Kurt was a senior and I was a sophomore, so he graduated later that school year. In the following five/ six years, we all but forgot about each other! We did, however, keep up via Twitter. All I knew about Kurt was that he was starting his fire career. At the same time, I was managing a Mainland Skate & Surf. The mall where I worked happened to have added a certain Vietnamese restaurant to the lineup. In my excitement, I sent a tweet about it not knowing food was about to bring Kurt and I together again. After Kurt had seen my post and so kindly found his way into my direct messages, we had our first date at Creasian. From then on, we had many more dinner dates, beach trips, and mini vacations. We also found our favorite way to relax and unwind was with wine in the hot tub at Kurt's house, listening to old school R&B on the radio. Between 2017 and 2019, Kurt's shifts could be anywhere from three to twenty-three days straight, so we made the most of our time together. For about a year in 2019, Kurt and I lived with his family. Kurt was finishing up at Cal Fire and I was in school for medical assisting. We were lucky enough to come home to delicious food every night, made with love. We were surrounded by family and laughter, and that beautiful view in the backyard was a bonus. In April 2020, right on the heels of the stay at home orders, we moved into our house. Kurt proposed Valentine's weekend of 2021 while we were hiking in Carmel, CA. We were in no rush to tie the knot, so we just continued having fun together and working. We also adopted two cats- Maya in 2021 and Forest in 2022. We spent some time torn between an elopement or a big wedding since we love certain elements of both. After some convincing and lots of generosity from our family who offered to help plan, we decided to make our move. We went with the best of both worlds: a private ceremony and a traditional reception to party with our favorite people. As it turns out, the perfect venue was waiting right under our noses, ever since our first hot-tub-wine-and-slow jamz date. Thank you for reading (especially if you made it all the way to this point). We are overjoyed to be able to celebrate our day with you! With love, Erin & Kurt