Soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Flütsch-Dominguez

Ian and Francine met during their freshman year of high school. They were in the same athletic training class, and during the last few days when everyone was signing yearbooks, a mutual friend introduced them. Ian accidentally gave Francine the wrong phone number (his had recently changed), so she was texting with a middle-aged woman for a solid day before realizing it wasn't Ian! Crushed, she thought she'd never get to really hear from him again, but luckily, he had written her number on his arm with a Sharpie. A few weeks into summer, he called her and invited her to the movies. They went as friends, but she wanted it to be more. After a year of being best friends, they were both finally able to tell each other that they wanted to date!! They have been together since March 17, 2010.

Francine and Ian agreed on a few things that needed to come before a proposal since they had started dating so young: 1) they both needed to graduate from college and 2) they needed to live together first. Francine finished her Master's in 2018, and that was also when they got to move into their first place together. Ian graduated in 2019, they moved into a new apartment, and adopted their sweet fur babies: Pixel and Ophelia. Everything was in place! But, Ian graduated in December of 2019... so COVID hitting in 2020 put the proposal on hold. At the beginning of 2021, with so many things in the air, they decided that it would be too hard to know when COVID would officially let up. Francine asked Ian to at least give her a hint in terms of when he would propose, and he promised that it would be in 2021, but that was the only hint he gave her. So, starting January 2021, any time they had an event planned, Francine was READY! Did it happen when they got stuck on Catalina island? No. Did it happen at a romantic hotel room on 4th of July? Nope. Did it happen at the pumpkin patch during one of her favorite holidays? No. Then, November rolls around, and Ian is running out of months. He jokingly tells her that he might have to wait until 2022 at this point. For her birthday, November 4th, they had booked a hotel downtown with friends. Ian suggested that the two of them go to Sunset Cliffs AT SUNSET before meeting up with the rest of the group. THIS WAS IT!! Francine could barely contain her excitement. When they got to Sunset Cliffs, however, it was very crowded. Ian, with the ring in his pocket, had to play it off that he just wanted to see the sunset. The real proposal ended up being better than she ever could have imagined because she was completely caught off guard. For all of the other events, she had a suspicion that he was going to do it. But she was completely blinded-sided by his plan: Since his Sunset Cliffs idea had been ruined by too many people, he opted for a more private setting. He enlisted the help of Francine's sisters and mom to help him pull off the surprise. Sarah texted Francine saying that they were going to take some photos over the weekend as a Christmas present for their grandfather (a totally plausible thing that they would do). Ian happened to be off that day, so Francine asked if he wanted to come. He said he wanted to blob at home for a bit, and that he would meet up with her for dinner. This was odd because he always is down to do family things, but she brushed it off. Sarah offered to come pick Francine up since they were getting take-out from a place in San Marcos. Sarah pretended that their mom ordered the food late, so they sat in the parking lot of twenty minutes. MEANWHILE, Ian quickly got dressed up, grabbed his car, and drove the back way to Francine's parents' house. In their neighborhood, there is a little gazebo at the top that was already decorated. Since he was with Francine all morning, he instructed her family on how to decorate: little lights hanging from the gazebo, flower petals on the ground, etc. After grabbing the food, Francine and her family went up to the gazebo. At the top, she saw the head of a man, and said, "great, we can't take pictures here! Some guy is up there." Her sisters urged her to walk a little further, and there was Ian. Francine was so shocked! She screamed and was hyperventilating. Ian was smiling so big, and they were both nervous, but it felt so right! They slow-danced to the song "Love Lasso" before he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. He proposed with a ring that was her dream ring. It is a day that neither of them will ever forget <3