We're Getting Married!

Chris and Laura's relationship began with the most romantic of settings: corporate Slack channels and quarterly planning meetings. Both employed at Springboard, an education technology startup in the Bay Area, they occupied their respective professional territories—Laura commanding learning science and content strategy while Chris directed product management with equal parts precision and awkward team-building exercises. What started as professional collaboration ("Can you review this deck?") gradually evolved into casual conversation ("Have you played the new Pokemon?"). They discovered an alarming number of overlapping interests: an unhealthy attachment to LEGO architecture, a shared appreciation for tinned fish that most people would find concerning, and video game preferences that suggested they were possibly the same person operating two separate LinkedIn profiles. Work conversations mysteriously expanded into after-hours video calls, each lasting progressively longer. In September 2023, Laura flew to New York, believing (nay, hoping?) that their personal connection might thrive outside corporate chat. The experiment yielded statistically significant results—a week filled with laughter, exploration, and the mutual realization that they had stumbled upon something that they only imagined in their wildest dreams. The next year unfolded as a patchwork of airport reunions, visits to cities neither called home, and enough phone calls to make the most of unlimited text and calling plans. They mastered the art of maintaining closeness across time zones and became experts at finding the best lighting for video calls. In January, Chris moved to Northern California, officially ending their status as unwilling patrons of various airlines. By April, Chris asked Laura to marry him. She said yes before he finished the question. And so began the most exciting project they'd ever collaborate on—building a life together.