Jacob and I met in 2017 at a Halloween party that neither of us had planned on attending. I was sitting on the couch listening to a coworker debate between “Rose” and “Blush” for the bowties in her wedding, and had turned to glance again at the clock when a handsomely bearded man I’d never seen before walked through the front door and headed to the kitchen to grab a beer. I nodded absently as the girl next to me continued to discuss the pros and cons of different accent colors, all the while stealing glances towards the kitchen hoping to see him again. Eventually he wandered out, beer in hand, a big smile on his face, and bright blue eyes shining. I abruptly excused myself from the wedding planning, and although I never found out whether or not the bowties would clash with the table-runners, Jacob and I spent the rest of the evening discovering that we were both engineers, avid hikers, and superb pumpkin carvers. We exchanged numbers before I left, and texted until our first date a few days later. We hiked a 14er that weekend, booked flights to Iceland for that summer, and have been going on adventures (both planned and spontaneous) ever since. So now that it’s my wedding, if you had to pick out a bowtie would you go with a “Sage” or a “Pine” green? I’m worried it might clash with the table-runners...

I was asked to a Halloween party by my friend Chris, and went rock climbing right before coming so I was in my climbing clothes and covered in chalk. I remember coming into the house and thinking “there are a lot of people here I don’t know”, which is not the best situation for a introvert. But luckily I had some beer I brought called Eddyline “Epic Day”, which is what this turned out to be. I remember seeing a couple girls sitting on the couch when I came in and a bunch of other people standing around the front room, but I passed everyone and went to the kitchen first so I could put my beer in the fridge and have one (to make myself a bit more sociable). I wandered back into the living room to have a look see, and this dark haired girl on the couch immediately locked onto me and started talking to me. The girl she had been talking to kept trying to add into the conversation, but left after a short time. I don’t remember much between that and pumpkins, but at some point the host and Chris chivvied us out to the garage to start carving. Sadly, since I had little notice, I wasn't able to bring a watermelon to carve but i started helping Chris with his pumpkin. I remember realizing “what the hell am I doing hanging out with Chis? I want to go sit by that girl Erika that I was talking to, she seemed really cool and pretty”. We talked about what we liked and where we worked. She found out that I liked hiking and the mountains and got even more interested. Then Erika had to leave and I was like “I need her number”. So I mustered my courage to ask her before she left (spoiler, she gave it to me). I couldn’t wait to talk to her again, so I texted her that night. And as the Irish say, tá an chuid eile stair.