We met playing on a Sunday softball team together. Brian was playing first base, I was playing third, as it is to this day! We didn't see each other much outside of softball until Brian came to my 30th birthday brunch that year. Admittedly, I was playing hard to get until early March when we decided to meet up for drinks after work. When pinpointing a 'central' location between our offices and homes, I said "I'm coming from my office on 28th & Ocean Park," and he responded... "So am I." Turns out our companies at the time were in the same business park, just two buildings over from each other without us realizing. From then on, casual drinks turned into our first date on March 30, 2018, and the rest is history.

If you know me at all, you know that I am a HUGE Christmas person (thanks to my mom), and so much so that my friends have affectionately called me "Mother Christmas" on numerous occasions. Brian and I were spending Christmas at my parents' house, and we all decided it would be fun to wear ugly Christmas sweaters and send some photos to Brian's family of us in our sweaters. Little did I know this was all part of the master plan. After unwrapping presents, Brian and I went to pose in front of the tree (sweaters and all), when Brian pointed out one last gift in the tree, a card addressed to me. I opened it and began reading the note, and as I finished, I looked up to see Brian down on one knee. I gasped, dropped the card, hands now held to my face, and shook my head, (in tears), and said "YES." Meanwhile, what I thought was a photo being taken by my sister, my parents looking on, was actually a zoom call with close friends of mine, logged on to see our special moment, all wearing ugly Christmas sweaters too, of course.

When deciding upon a venue, we had it narrowed down to two, both which checked off all the same boxes. At the end of it all, the other just "wasn't the zoo." Brian and I are both non-traditional, casual, fun-loving people who love animals (fun fact, Brian is a wizard of knowing what groupings of animals are called), and the Santa Barbara Zoo couldn't be more of a perfect place to start our forever. We're so excited to celebrate this next chapter in our lives with you. See you in Santa Barbara!