We met the modern way—on Hinge. We matched and started chatting while Darren was still in San Diego, just two weeks away from moving to Denver. The timing felt suspiciously like fate. The day after his mom left from helping him move, we had our first date at Forest Room 5—a very “Denver” introduction featuring taxidermy on the walls and a baby bird hatching video playing overhead. Date two was drinks at Terminal Bar in Union Station followed by ramen at Jinya. Date three was wandering Dairy Block downtown. Somewhere between noodles and neon lights, we stopped keeping count. Fast forward to Thanksgiving in Vietnam, just the two of us. Sam had absolutely no idea a proposal was coming. We were cruising through Ha Long Bay at sunset, taking photos, when Darren suddenly asked the teenage photographer to stop—then got down on one knee and popped the question. (Huge shoutout to the photographer’s dad for urgently yelling, “Take a video!”) After a stunned “Are you kidding?!”, Sam nodded yes… and then immediately grabbed the ring and put it on her own finger. Clearly, no further assistance was required.