Gui and Liz met on Hinge in November 2020, when she swiped right on a photo of him dressed as 90’s-era Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, complete with the turtleneck, chain, and fanny pack. Her opening line was, “Iconic costume! Please tell me you carried beers in your fanny pack all night!?” Liz had just moved to DC right before the pandemic hit and was working in a hospital, which made doing anything with anyone very complicated. After telling Gui that she loved dive bars and was interested in exploring more of DC but had not yet had the opportunity due to the pandemic, Gui and Liz agreed to meet at Gui’s favorite dive bar in the city, Desperado’s Burgers and Bar. Before their date, Gui told Liz that he was planning to move out of the city within the next few weeks after quitting his job. Most of his friends had left during the pandemic, and he was paying for a studio apartment in the city that he no longer needed. He was also interested in possibly pursuing grad school or traveling around the U.S. while searching for remote work. Liz still agreed to meet with Gui, despite his plans to move. So, both she and Gui went into the night thinking they were going on a very casual date. From the moment they sat down together at Desperado’s on December 3rd, 2020, they quickly realized that would not be the case. Gui continues to argue that Liz was late to the date, but Liz always maintains that she had informed Gui beforehand that she got stuck in traffic commuting home from Baltimore, where she worked at the time, and notified him she would be later than their agreed-upon time. This is beside the point; because that night, they talked for hours, shared two beers and two mystery shots (attempting to guess the correct three ingredients of the shots in order to win a free beer— an old Desperado's Bar tradition), and ended up not spending a day apart again. Gui did move out of DC four weeks later as planned but didn’t realize just how much of DC he would continue to see while driving up to visit his girlfriend and eventual fiancée! For the next year and a half, he and Liz took turns driving up and down I-95 to see each other while Gui lived in Richmond, VA, with his brother. In September 2022, they moved into an apartment in DC overlooking their now-chosen wedding venue. On March 22nd, 2024, in South Lake Tahoe, CA, while traveling around the country together for Liz’s job as a travel Occupational Therapist, Gui completely surprised Liz by getting down on one knee, pulling out a ring, and saying, ‘“Let’s get married!”