We met online through Bumble and had our first date at Mercato in downtown Olympia. While we were both shy and nervous, we enjoyed our time together and bonded over our shared hobbies, interests, and careers. Jeff is a middle school math teacher and I am a high school English teacher. When the COVID lockdown was announced, Jeff and I talked about how we would continue our relationship. We didn't want to stop seeing each other, so we experienced the COVID lockdown together and the pandemic strengthened our love and commitment to each other. Everything has felt natural as we've built our lives together and we're excited to take the next step of the journey as husband and wife.

We went with Sara's family to Disneyland to celebrate the holiday season. I knew she loved Sleeping Beauty's Castle and I presumed this mostly meant the outside, where the famous scenery and fireworks are. It's also where the people are. Naturally, then, my preference became the inside. I had put the ring in my wallet a la Andy Bernard, meaning it was easy to get into the park and walk around with and required only occasional panicked groping into my pockets to make sure it was still there. I think Sara tried to pat me down at some point, but she was expecting to find the box it came in so she concluded that I did not have it with me. Anyway, late at night, we made our way back to the castle per my suggestion (not at all smoothly, but Sara assures me she did not know it was coming). Outside the castle were the aforementioned people, so we walked through the inside path, treating ourselves again to the story of Princess Aurora and her guardian fairies saving the kingdom. Despite the fact that the holographic displays of fairies were glitchy on this particular evening, Maleficent and her dark minions were no match for the power of true love. I thought we had the castle interior largely to ourselves, but the voices of another couple behind us reminded me that I could easily stall for just a second too long and lose the one-on-one moment. After waiting for them to walk past us in the corridor, I awkwardly lingered around the scene leading up to the climactic battle. I heard voices again, and a second family then s-l-o-w-l-y made their way around us. I knew that as soon as they were around the corner I would need to take action, but unlike Prince Philip, I had gotten explicit permission first. As green lightning flashed around us and the recording of Maleficent cackling fiendish intentions looped in the background (thus indicating how long the Imagineers intended for us to spend in this particular corridor), I got down on one knee and asked Sara to marry me. She said yes.