Mackenzie - One of the first things I did when I returned home from my year of service in the United Kingdom, was sign up for OkCupid. After years of putting my studies first, I was ready to start seriously dating, have fun and eventually meet my person. Knowing my luck, I anticipated that finding “the one” would take several bad first dates, and a few relationships that wouldn’t work out. I had no idea that my first ever date set up online would lead to me meeting the love of my life. We met in person for the first time on September 3rd, 2016 at Stout Brothers in Santa Rosa. We spent the evening learning about each other over cocktails. As the night went on, I kept saying that I should leave, and he would agree- but we would find some reason not to leave and keep talking and laughing together. While I don’t believe in “love at first sight” (or internet click, in this matter), I did feel like we shared some sort of connection, and left the bar looking forward to meeting him again. Daniel - I had been on OkCupid for a while before meeting Mackenzie on it. Unlike her, I was the one to go through some awkward dates. After first messaging Mackenzie and getting to know each other a bit, we decided to meet for a date! They day before we were due to meet, I fell ill with a stomach bug and had to cancel. When I tried to reschedule, she didn't respond for three days! Something told me to stay persistent with this, and eventually we agreed to try again and meet up. I arrived at Stout Brothers early to ensure that she wouldn't be waiting for me. Once she arrived, we had a wonderful night of drinks and conversation! She appreciated me walking her to her car, after we finally decided after the third attempt at leaving that it was time to go. As I walked back to my car, I couldn’t help but think I excited I was to see her again!

Daniel - I was nervous about finding the right ring for Mackenzie. Who knew I would walk in to a small local jewler down the street from our apartment and find a ring that made me say “yep, that’s the one!”. Unforunately, we didn’t share any days off together at the time, so planning a proposal that didn’t seem blatantly obvious was going to be challenging. Eventually I had worked out a Saturday that I was able to get off, and immediatly asked Mackenzie to go on a hike. I made up some silly excuse about a coworker needing to trade a shift with me so I ended up with a random Saturday off. With the ring in my pocket, we hiked to the top of Bald Mountain in Kenwood. I chose this place because we had both been there before, we love hiking, and surrounding us was both of the areas we grew up in and the places we loved to go. We were taking a picture together when a random bystander asked if we wanted her to take a picture of is. She snapped a few shots and I knew it was now or never at this point. She went to give my phone back when I asked if she could take a few more. The bystander’s confusion turned to pure joy as I got down on one knee and asked Mackenzie if I could be her husband. Obviously, she said yes. Thank you random hiker, for capturing one of the best moments of our lives.