First and foremost, we want to thank each and every one of you for being a part of our lives for the past 30+ years (slightly longer for Mary, but no matter) to help shape the person that we have each fallen in love with. Without your input on our lives, we very well may not have the opportunity to celebrate together, and we are so very excited to do so! Our story is a classic tale of Hinge – there has been some debate on who liked who (Spencer liked Mary, she has the receipts), but what matters is that we did in fact match. After what was probably too long of small talk, Mary worked up the courage to share a phone number and Spencer was finally able to figure out a first date plan – Sunday dinner. Spencer and groomsman Braden Young were set to attend a concert that night, but wisely realized that a concert after a weekend trip to Palm Springs was probably not the best idea and had decided to try and sell the tickets. Perhaps even more wisely, Spencer decided that Portugal the Man (I know, who?) and Alt J floor tickets were too good to pass up and ended up asking Mary to go for their first date instead of dinner. Mary agreed and off they went. Little did they know that this was not actually the first concert that both Mary and Spencer had attended, foreshadowing many concerts to come across all of L.A.'s best venues. It did not take long for Spencer and Mary to fall in love and a little over a year later Spencer was making big plans for a proposal in Malibu ending with a night out with all of the couple’s local friends in Hollywood. This required coordinating the schedules of 20+ people to only 1 specific date that would work for everyone. Plans were set in motion – Mary was convinced she was going on yet another girls trip to Vegas in July leaving Spencer behind to fend for himself in Silver Lake. However, as fate would have it, Mary caught Covid the week prior to the planned proposal and was absolutely devastated to be missing out on Vegas. Spencer was also devastated but couldn’t really say why. Mary was further devastated to realize that a multitude of friends across California were all randomly in town AND free AND partying together somehow all while she had Covid. Tears were had. In the end the proposal was pushed out a week where Spencer and Mary hiked along the coast in beautiful Malibu, ending on the cliffs, and proposing with her sister and bridesmaid Nikki ready for photos. The day followed with lunch with Mary’s family in Malibu and a small gathering of some of Spencer’s friends later in the day. Luckily enough, Portugal the Man (remember?) was actually in town at the Hollywood Bowl on the new proposal date and we were able to close our dating circle seeing the band that we saw on our first date. Overall, we feel so, so lucky to have found each other. Spencer loves how caring, funny, loving, and supportive Mary is. She is always so easy to talk to. He loves her cooking and looks forward to eating dinner together every night. They have enjoyed many long hikes together while Spencer trained for Mount Whitney, they have tackled trips to Aspen, Mexico, and Kauai with many more to come, and Spencer is ever grateful to have such an amazing life partner. Mary loves so many things about Spencer but she especially loves his playful demeanor and his laugh (if you know you know). He’s the biggest cheerleader, and isn’t afraid to push her to new limits, even if it leads to a few tears on the ski slope. Mary can’t imagine a better partner to go through life with and is looking forward to all their future adventures. We cannot wait to celebrate with you all in Santa Barbara – a beautiful and romantic location in Southern California and we are excited to share with you our special day!