We met at work in 2017, though I’ll admit, I almost didn’t interview him—his resume was incomplete like it had auto submitted on Indeed or something. It definitely didn’t scream “great employee” (or little did I know “future husband”). But when he came in for his interview in another department, dressed up with his printed resume in hand, boy am I glad I was forced to give him a shot at a marketing position! As you can imagine, I was the perfect boss and Juan a star employee. I’ll admit, when he gave his notice in 2019 I was sad not just to be losing a great employee, but to be losing his presence in my day-to-day life.

A short while later, he asked me on our first date! (Vinyl Taco, and yes, I still have the postcard he mailed me while I was in the bathroom!) Fast forward a bit and we were sitting in front of the fireplace playing cribbage and making up our anniversary. Because, does anyone really ask someone to be their girlfriend anymore? Or do you just wind up a couple years down the road saying “hey, we don’t have an anniversary” and proceed to choose a month that doesn’t have too many family/friends birthdays in it and add your birth dates together for the number? March 16th, 2020 will always hold a special place in my heart.

On July 31st, 2021, my best friend Jordyn and I had a few too many Tavern 75 martinis at one of our favorite restaurants. (Juan and I had been talking about getting a dog for awhile, but had planned to wait until late fall to get one.) As you can probably guess, as Jordyn and I sipped and looked up pups in the area, the texts started flying to Juan. Once I saw his picture I knew we NEEDED the cutest springerdoodle I had ever seen. Despite the intended timeframe, the next afternoon Juan caved and agreed. We went to TJ Maxx for some toys, a bed, a collar and leash, and went to pick up the goofiest, smartest, snuggliest, adventure dog we could have asked for and officially added Guillermo “Mo” to our little family.

Flash forward a couple years and we were on a road trip out to Bozeman, Montana to visit Juan’s brother Jason and his girlfriend Madi for a week of hiking and camping. We travelled with 2 vehicles, 3 dogs, and 6 people out west to what would end up being the best trip of my life. Day 2 we woke up and were getting ready for our first hike of the trip. I asked Juan which of the hikes had better views because I wanted to wear my cuter outfit to take some pictures (duh). I didn’t think anything of it, but I later found out Juan sure did. He had planned to propose on that hike, but thought I was “on to him” because of my outfit question. So he waited 3 more days (we had no electricity or plumbing). It was our last night, I was in the biggest set of sweats I brought, and the whole family walked down to see the sunset by the lake. The sky looked painted it was so beautiful. We took pictures of Justin and Grace first, then it was our turn. Juan asked me to take Mo’s collar off and give it to his mom. We hadn’t taken his collar off the whole trip, why start now? He pushed, I said it was stupid but I took it off, and instead of walking to hand it to his mom I took about 3 steps and chucked it in the sand. When I turned around his knee was a couple inches from the ground! (I now understood why he wanted me to walk the collar to his mom…) I couldn’t tell you what he said, all I remember was saying yes, the tears flowing and the champagne spraying! I’m so glad he still popped the question after I was such a brat! We spent the rest of the night back at the campsite sharing the story with the wonderful man that watched our campfire while we were down at the lake (I think he was just as excited as my dad was for us!), listening to music, playing phase 10, drinking tequila and talking about love. It was PERFECT.

After two years of being engaged, we are beyond ready to make it official! We can't wait to celebrate this next chapter of our adventure with all of you!