Thank you so much for celebrating with us!

In Ryan's words... It all started in 2016 when our friend Cristina told me "I have a cute girlfriend visiting from San Diego". Intrigued and curious, I showed up to meet this "friend" who we now know is Nicole for brunch at Flores. I was a tad hungover so I only stayed for a few minutes, but long enough to realize that Nicole was beautiful and fun. I left that brunch and sent Cristina a text saying "Your friend is really cute. Let me know where you go later tonight". We never met up and unfortunately, that's not where the love story began. Fast forward 2 years, Cristina was hosting a birthday party at her house in San Mateo. I knew Nicole was going to be there so I anxiously show up and try to make small talk. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, that didn't get me anywhere. Love story still hasn't begun but progress being made. I did what any single guy who has a crush on a woman would do. Yes, I followed her on Instagram. Nicole would post fun photos of her travel, concert, and restaurant experiences. Knowing what worked for me in the past, I sent dozens of heart and fire emojis. Shocked and confused, Nicole didn't go for the bait. She also decided to ignore my message that wrote "You're always traveling, when are you visiting San Francisco next?" Feeling a bit awkward at that point, I cooled off sending the emojis and flirty messages. I thought there was no chance I'm going to get through to this woman...until I did.

The night was Sunday, October 6th and the time was 7:56pm. I had just moved into my new apartment a few weeks earlier so I was building furniture and listening to music. I took a little break to cruise through instagram when I saw Nicole post a photo. I thought to myself, "she's always been the one I wanted, go for it". So I boldly sent the following DM "This probably seems out of the blue and I'm not sure if you're seeing anyone but I've had a little crush on you since I met you. What do I have to do for you to let me take you on a date? Fly down to SD? Fly you up to SF?" I thought to myself "holy crap you shot your shot. Now, just wait" I must have checked my phone 40 times that night before bed and multiple times in the middle of the night. No response. Not knowing what time she wakes up, I checked it a dozen more times in the morning. Nothing. My friend at work told me "don't message her again, let her respond". I agreed. I wasn't going to follow up with my bold offer. The time is now 11:14am and I am panicking. DM #2 wrote "Sorry for the bold message last night. Was feeling pretty confident and Cristina said she approves lol. No pressure at all...I would have regretted not trying :)" Minutes later...my phone buzzed. "Hey Ryan. Omg sorry I am really bad at checking insta messages I'll be honest. But I am super flattered!! And so sweet of you I had no idea. And either haha both cities are pretty amzing." From there we exchanged numbers, had a facetime date, and had a weekend planned for Nicole to fly up to San Francisco. The weekend was a success and I left her with a little note explaining how much fun I had and how I can't wait to see her again. Nicole has said "when I read that note, I had a feeling that this was it." Our next date was in New York City followed by a weekend in San Diego where we made it official as "boyfriend and girlfriend." Moral of the story: I finally got the girl I wanted. And Nicole was oblivous to my fire and heart emojis.