forever mine, forever ewers

We met while working at In n Out back in summer 2011, I was in college and Dan was taking on a new management position. We both worked at different locations over the next couple years but always remained in contact. We would message each other every few months, and would talk about mainly work but family too, which is how our friendship grew. By early 2014, I hadn't heard from Dan in a while and only knew he had started a new job. On a very random afternoon he messaged me and we started catching up. I suggested we go out for dinner and drinks with some of our friends so we decided to meet up in downtown San Jose a few weeks later. It was a Friday afternoon, and I was driving up from Salinas. I felt so bad because we had him waiting at the bar for over an hour, but when we finally got there our faces LIT up! There was never a shortage of jokes & smiles- we could not stop laughing the entire night. The spark was obvious. Dan knew it too. It was so easy to be ourselves around each other. After that night, we kept talking and over the next couple dates, I realized I was falling for him (how could I not!?) He was always really special to me and now that we were seeing each other, loving him came so natural and effortless.

The week leading up to that Saturday I wasn't feeling too well, I almost didn't feel like going out but Dan insisted we go to Half Moon Bay and go to our usual beach and burger spot. So it felt very much like a typical weekend. We made it to this secluded beach we'd always go to when Dan was living in Pacifica with Evie and Kyle. It was such a nice day and no one was out there that morning. I started collecting rocks, shells, and pieces of drift wood along the beach. To my surprise Dan joined in (he usually just watched me). I started taking a video of the beach and spotted Dan sitting on a log. I walk over to him and he says "I have a surprise for you." I was so caught off guard, I assumed he brought candy or a treat with him! But then I see him pull out this dainty, navy blue, oval ring box, opens it and starts talking, his voice was shaky and I think I went deaf. Is this real?! Under all those sniffles, snot and tears- I SAID YES, we sat on that log for a while, I was trying to soak it all in and process the moment! I had so many questions for Dan since he took me by surprise. Something really special he did the day before was secretly going to my parents home and asking them for my hand in marriage, he said my mom admired the ring, gave it a kiss and blessed it- this made the engagement even more special for me ....After we left the beach, we celebrated with some tasty burgers and a nursery stop! And a few months later, we decided to do an "engagement" photoshoot where we recreated one of our very first dates. Little did we know that the day we first took the mustang out to Big Sur, that we'd be back five years later...ENGAGED!!!!

It was a sunny spring weekend. Dan had planned to drive down in Salinas so we could hang out and go to Big Sur. I met him at the mall parking lot and when I saw him pull in I did a double take because I didn't remember him telling me he was bringing his mustang! The car sounded loud and I wasn't sure if it was a good thing. I had never ridden in a classic car before that! So I was really unfamiliar what riding in one would be like. We made our way to Big Sur and at first I was actually pretty nervous about the car breaking down (the car actually ran great, I obviously know nothing about old cars haha). We drove along highway 1, windows down, breeze blowing in, it was a gorgeous day! We made a few stops along the way to take pictures of us and the car and occasionally caught tourists taking pictures of it too. When we were deciding what to do for our engagement shoot we immediately thought of recreating the first date. We also wanted to incorporate something really special to this day which was Dan's relationship to the car. Same car that once belonged to Grandpa Frank, then Dad and now him. As we made the drive down to Big Sur from San Jose, it started to look really foggy as we got closer to the coast. I started to get a bit nervous because I was really hoping for a sunny day like the first time. We finally met with he photographer and told her my concern about the weather, then I was relieved when she said that the cloud cover is actually ideal for a photoshoot! After we saw the photos, I loved how different it actually looked compared to the first date weather. (view photos page)