We Are Getting Married!!

Mackinzie and Whitney meet via the Whitman Cycling team and become friends over many training rides and weekends filled with long drives and lots of bike racing. Finally, in April, Whitney invited Mackinzie to a Walla Walla Symphony concert (where Project Trio played the William Tell Overture, a Whitney favorite!!). Mackinzie forces Whitney to pick her up at her dorm after Whitney purposefully asks her out in an ambiguous way in order to allow Mackinzie to pretend it's a friend date instead of a romantic date in case she doesn't reciprocate his feelings. They start dating one week before Whitney graduated from Whitman College and it remains a long-distance relationship for the next 7.5 YEARS.

Mackinzie surprises Whitney with a pre-Christmas gift in a ring box. Mackinzie does not kneel and does not explicitly ask Whitney to marry her (since Mackinzie overthinks too much and wanted to propose first but also didn't want to step on any toes since they had previously talked about proposing on the same day*). Whitney forces Mackinzie to redo her proposal with a formal kneel and ask - which Mackinzie is more than happy to comply with. Whitney (of course) accepts! They become fiancettes (mini fiances) until Whitney decides to propose. *(As some additional background, they had been discussing getting married previously, so it was not a COMPLETE surprise...However Whitney had thought they had agreed to both propose on the same day...Turns out he was wrong. :P )

Whitney furiously searched for rings over Christmas break. Although he contemplated non-sparkly rings, like opal or tourmaline (Mackinzie's birthstone) or emerald (his birthstone), he ultimately realized he was a magpie and liked shiny and sparkly objects too much. He then designed a custom menu and planned an elaborate dinner consisting of items from shared life adventures, such as veal schnitzel (from Austria), 2013 Cayuse wine (from Walla Walla), and KAF flourless chocolate cake (something we had made many times together). After the dinner, when Mackinzie was super suspicious, Whitney finally pulled the ring out and proposed. Luckily Mackinzie accepted, they completed the fiancette, and became fiancees.