Our story didn’t start with one big moment… it started the summer after middle school. We were part of the same friend group, spent years in each other’s lives, and somehow made it all through high school being almost something… a few “dates,” a lot of hanging out, but never quite turning into anything. After high school, life took us in completely different directions. Jen went to Cal Poly Pomona, Zach stayed at Sacramento State and later moved to Reno, and for a while, we just… lived totally separate lives. Fast forward a few years, and somehow we both ended up back in the same place, single at the same time, and decided to reconnect. And just like that… it clicked. No awkward phase, no catching up… just straight into hours of talking, laughing, and thinking, wait… why was this never a thing before? Now, was it smooth from the start? Absolutely not. There were definitely some mixed signals, a spontaneous stargazing night that may or may not have been a date… and yes, Zach did ask Jen for advice about another girl and then ghosted her. Confusing, right? (Don’t worry… Jen will never let him live that down.) But somewhere in the middle of all that chaos… we realized we didn’t want to go through life, or the stress of it, with anyone else. From that point on, life just felt better together. Jen has learned more about cars and trinkets than she ever thought she would, Zach has found a love for traveling and line dancing, and together we’ve built a life full of goofiness, smiles, laughter, adventures, and shared goals in Rancho Murieta with our two crazy pups, Bean and Churro. So after years of being “just friends,” who would’ve thought that the person you once had a crush on could become your forever best friend 14 years later, and we’d be bringing all of our favorite people together to watch us say I do? Most people might say they wish they had reconected sooner, or that they could’ve skipped the years apart… but not us. We love our story. Every phase of life shaped us into who we are today, and we appreciate every detail of each other that much more. And now we get to start the rest of life together the same way we started this… a little chaotic, with tons of fun, and completely obsessed with one another!