we have been together for 15 years, and anyone who knows us knows we are not traditional and have a love of all things spooky! there will be no ceremony, but instead a night full of love, light, and laughter with some of our closest friends. ken is currently going through cancer treatment, and so the celebration will be outdoors for safety (but we'll bring the heat--literally with heaters and of course, with lots of dancing!). there will be vegan food, cake, lots of drinks (non-alcoholic and alcoholic!) and hopefully lots of memories made. <3 we feel we have what we need right now in life, most importantly each other and the love and support of all of you. your attendance is the best gift you could give to us. if you want to do something else special, in lieu of a material gift, please donate to your local open-admission animal shelter or to PETA.

rachelle version: i saw ken in the hallway at work, and immediately thought "who is that cute punk boy with all those tattoos?!" and the rest is history. ;) really, we held hands in the ocean and realized there was something there, and i fell in love with ken after a coffee-shop date and hearing all about how much he loved his former roommate's dog (tyler chewbacca tyson!). i soon realized he was truly one-of-a-kind with a heart of gold and patience of a saint. ken version: rachelle doesn't remember this but i met her when i was on tour in the summer of 2007 on the vans warped tour in detroit. she was helping table as a local peta2 street teamer. it wasn't until i arrived in norfolk virginia in the summer of 2008 that we really met though. we had a day at the beach after the summer tours ended and a coffee date before i went out on a stint of fall tours. we texted every day and by the end i decided to not return to san francisco but to move to norfolk to try and make it work with a girl i had fallen in love with.

ken planned a whole day where every proposal spot was ruined for some reason or another and rachelle was in the grumpiest mood. first, we hiked a michigan dune to the top but ken felt it wasn't right (probably because rachelle was sweaty and annoyed), then we visited a tulip farm that had no tulips but lots of buffalo meat for sale in a weird gray building that looked like something out of texas chainsaw massacre, and then rachelle didn't want to pay for parking at the very last chance of the day, a beach in holland on the edge of lake michigan, but luckily she coughed up the $12 to park. as we looked out over the water, ken asked rachelle if she would marry him, and of course rachelle said yes (it'd been over a decade already! ;). the ring ken chose is a perfect burgundy stone, set in a ring cast from real tree branches. <3 he chose it from a jeweler in sweden that rachelle had mentioned liking years ago.