WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!

Just before the happy couple met Chris had been working in the same biotechnology building for six years, surviving a buyout from Zymo to Seagen. Bekah joined as a contractor in March of 2022 when Chris had long hair and Bekah knew nothing about biotech. Come that winter, as a contractor Bekah was not able to go to the company party so she was gifted Chris' plus one. Little did they know that, despite not talking on their "first date," it would spark into a lifelong partnership. Spring of 2023 Chris offered Bekah a pair of his Sounders season tickets for a game he couldn't attend (he actually just didn't want to go because it was raining). Fast forward to end of June, Bekah made the bold (and drunk) move of texting him to see if he was at a Sounders match she was also attending. He was! And he invited her to meet up with friends after the game. Not thinking she would... she did. That was the moment Chris knew this could be something real. About a week later Bekah joined his friend's pick-up soccer game in Ballard. She knew after seeing his goofiness and super talented soccer skills it was all over for her. She sent multiple texts inviting him to join up with her and friends at a Lord of the Rings Bar (he didn't) and play on her soccer team (he did). She often refers to this time as trying to Approach a Wild Animal. Slowly, cautiously, little to no eye contact... After all that gentle nudging in July he finally asked her out, and for their first OFFICIAL date they went paddle boarding on Lake Washington. Bekah and Chris have been inseparable ever since.

The year of 2024 was a wild one. It started with the happy couple going on a beautiful trip to Alaska in February for Bekah's birthday, where she was born. They were accompanied by her older sister Hannah and Hannah's fiancé at the time, Russell. Throughout the first five months of the year they were house hunting. Eight offers and some stressful moments later the last one finally stuck. They closed on their beautiful home in May. A week before they were supposed to move in, Bekah was hospitalized for three days with a 104 fever that turned out to be a kidney infection, all the while Bekah was training after switching departments at work. After healing and settling in their new home they traveled to Europe. Three weeks in August was spent road tripping through Switzerland, meeting up with friends in Germany, and introducing Bekah to Chris' family in Czech Republic, where he was born. Just a few short weeks after they returned, the first of September Hannah was married to her now husband Rusel in a beautiful ceremony on Vashon Island. A month later the whole Greider family flew to Kansas to celebrate with Rusl's family, where HE was born. November rolled around and once they were settling into life again and it seemed too easy... they decided to adopt a puppy! At three months and thirty pounds their spunky Walnut entered the picture. Now they cannot picture their life before he was in it. Finally, The Proposal: For New Years Eve the happy couple, their new puppy, Hannah, Rusty, Piper (their dog), and Ben (Bekah and Hannah's younger brother) rented an Airbnb just south of the North Cascades to celebrate the New Year in the peace and quiet of the mountains... along with speakers and dancing around a raging campfire. That night, Chris thought, with everything they'd been through that year it was the perfect moment to get down on one knee. Through Russell he sneakily instigated to have everyone go over their 2024 year. Chris went last, ending with the perfect cap off of the Bless-ed Year of Chaos by asking Bekah to marry him.