Ben started at Amanda’s workplace on this day as a graphic designer, just like her. From their immediate meeting, his joy and lightheartedness stood out to her. She quickly found him to be a dependable asset to the team.

Amanda heard about highly discounted tickets for the Just Like Heaven festival in Pasadena. It featured lots of her favorite indie bands, but she was too scared to go by herself. She thought of Ben, since he was well known at work for loving music, but was too nervous to ask. Finally, the day before, she asked and he said yes. The day was so fun. He took her out to lunch, and they stayed at the festival almost all the way through. They tried to leave early to avoid traffic but couldn’t find the car and ended up sitting on a tree stump and talked about life. That’s when Ben told Amanda he quit his job in the sports world because he wanted a different life: to be married by age 30, and have kids. This really stood out to her.

At this point, neither Amanda nor Ben were totally confident how the other person felt. But Ben asked Amanda to go to the beach, and she said yes. They got coffee first and sat and talked at a cafe for a while. Then they spent the entire day at the beach. As the sun set, they stood near the ocean wondering where this was going to go. Regardless, they’d just spent the entire day with each other and never ran out of things to talk about.

Amanda and Ben knew that their relationship was unique, since they worked together. They both loved their jobs, too, so they knew if they decided to do this—to date—it needed to be SERIOUS. They asked the hard questions and really got to know each other, before making it official.

Amanda loves doing photography, and Ben was really encouraging her to do a photoshoot on Saturday. In fact, he said they should do a couple photoshoot while they’re at it. She was surprised at the suggestion, but it wasn’t the first time they’d done it, so she didn’t think much of it. Last minute, he suggested they do the shoot in Pasadena—which was full circle back to the concert they went to together. They took photos in a secluded park, and then when Amanda said she was done he said he had one more pose. He set up the phone to record, and then told her to face her back to him and then around on the count of three. When she turned around, he was down on one knee with the ring!! She said yes, and they got to enjoy lunch at True Food and get icecream.