We’re getting married!

I, Stephen, started at Starbucks just about 7 years ago from our wedding date. Once I started, the joke always was with fellow baristas, if you work at Starbucks that's how you will end up finding your soul mate. I was about 1 1/2 years in at Starbucks and I was going for a promotion to be an Assistant Store Manager (or Assistant TO the Store Manager as I like to call it). Sadly that January I did not get the promotion and what I believed to be a fail. That failure just happened to lead me to a different Starbucks for second store experience since I had only been at one store since I started for Starbucks. I jokingly said to a friend of mine "what if I meet my future wife at this store?" and who would have known that would actually be true. My first day working at the store on Lakeside, there was Kate Ploeger. There were the normal hellos and introductions that every partner working at a different store does. I remember one of the first things she said to me after I said something sarcastically to her was, "You're not allowed to be sassy, I am the sassy one". So kids, moral of the story is you may fail sometimes, but as long as you keep going, something good might come your way. Not to mention people always say there is a little truth to every joke, turns out that's true and she fell for the joke.

Stephen played it cool leading up until the engagement. He took Kate to a "normal" lunch at a sports bar called Flowing Tide. During lunch he was getting, "good luck" texts from those close to him who knew the big secret was going to be revealed at any moment. They met up with the photographer at Rancho San Rafeal park, and walked around the park. Kate was thinking they were just taking the usual couples pictures. The snow started to fall, and under the awning he asked down on one knee, "hey pretty girl can I have this dance." The answer was YES! We are so excited to celebrate this next chapter in our lives with you!