Living just buildings apart on the same block in late 2021, we met walking our dogs, now affectionately referred to as the Poodles. Beverly and Chef became immediate friends and not long after, so did we. Soon dog park hangs, reality TV binge parties, and grabbing a drink at any of the bars within walking distance turned our friendship into more, and now here we are! Fun fact: the first trip we took together was 24 hours in Vegas for Rachel's 26th birthday a week after we started dating. The Poodles insist on taking all the credit for our relationship, and we're ok with that.

While we planned on having a beautiful international proposal in Japan in March 2025, we just couldn't wait. After picking up our rings during lunch on Friday, February 21, 2025, we decided we couldn't wait another month to get engaged. We couldn't even wait 24 hours until we had a pre-planned trip to Santa Barbara. We could barely even wait four hours until we were done with work. Rach picked up some wine and Mad turned on some music, we wrote each other letters and proposed in our actual favorite place in the world, our living room, with the Poodles close by. We then went to Santa Barbara to celebrate and promptly joined our first wine club.