Love conquers all

Family and Friends, from near and far, we are excited to celebrate the fusion of two cultures brought together by nothing other than love.... (and maybe some trauma from the days of advanced fellowship and being unit charge nurse :p ) It all began with a handsome GI doctor attending his orientation day for his advanced GI fellowship, getting a tour of his soon to be second home, the hospital endoscopy unit. As the story goes, Riz noticed Garyn preparing for the next day, putting up the schedule/assignments on the white board. Despite her lovely nurse scrubs and the end of the day makeup & hair, Riz still was intrigued enough to lean in and ask his colleague, "Who is that"?! and within moments found a reason to talk to Garyn... criticizing the way she had the schedule set up. Super smooth... Anyone who works in healthcare knows you do not question a charge nurses schedule...especially before you have even started working on the unit. As great as his suggestions were, Garyn kindly smiled and tried to explain to him the many reasons why his fantastic ideas would not work.. not realizing he was just trying to talk with her. As the abuse began for Riz.. I mean as Riz began his advanced fellowship...he would end up staying late many nights to finish his work. Many times as he was getting ready to leave he would often see Garyn still at the nurses station working on the next days schedule and would park himself right next to her to keep her company, making her laugh, feeding her free food from the Doctors lounge (all the pickled flavored chips mmm), helping her finish her tasks around the unit at times, until she was done with her work and ready to leave for the night. What a guy!! In the meantime, as Garyn and Riz friendship began to grow, some of the endo staff worked endlessly (cough* Jenn MacFarland & Rachel Salcedo) to ensure Riz and Garyn never forgot the great qualities that each entailed. Fast forward through completing fellowships, changing of hospitals/cities of work, Riz starting up a new practice, COVID, three years of colon cancer walks organized by the two (IYKYK) and Masters FNP programs - Riz and Garyn continued their support for one another and became best friends. After many long discussions, family meetings/blessings - Riz and Garyn decided marriage was in their future. With a stressful work and school schedule, Garyn was not ready until she successfully her completed her program. With the help of great friends - one week prior to her FNP graduation, Riz made the big move and tricked her into a hike in Sedona with her girlfriends (which is a place close to the couple's heart) and romantically proposed ! _____________________________________________________________________________ As happy as we are that we can move forward in life together as a team, we are even happier to celebrate the day with close family and friends. We are excited to celebrate the night away as we join in new and familiar cultural traditions of both wedding parties, to commemorate the joining of hands and that you may enjoy the learning process as we did, in finding beauty in all the traditional norms that a wedding can bring!