Maggie and Riley met on the dating app Bumble. There…..we said it! It all started in January 2017 when fate, the Gods, our hormones, or whatever other supernatural entity you may believe in, guided Maggie and Riley to “swipe right” on each other’s profiles thus becoming a “Match”. Woah….things were moving fast! Riley has said that Maggie was an obvious “swipe right” candidate because of her smile and the unfair advantage she gave herself by having a profile picture of her with her parents adorable Goldendoodle Brody. To this day, Maggie will attest that Riley’s profile picture he was using at the time is still her favorite picture of him. An added bonus that legitimized the “Match” and set it apart from most others on the Bumble app was that we had an astonishing roughly 175 friends in common. After vetting one another for a week or so through the apps messaging function, we dubbed each other sane enough to meet in the flesh. The plan was for Riley to meet up with Maggie and a few of her friends at a bar on the strand in Hermosa Beach called The Deck once they were done with their gals brunch. Usually the epitome of punctual, Riley experienced multiple bike chain hiccups on his ride over to meet them and showed up late with rust all over his hands and sweat dripping down his back….what a loser! Thankfully, Maggie showcased her trademark kindness off the bat and poured Riley a beer with no judgment and as cliché as it sounds, the rest is kind of history. We ended up spending that entire day and night together, meeting up with multiple groups of friends at various establishments. The chemistry was undeniable. Of course we did have a formal first date at Petros in Manhattan Beach that next week but we use January 28th, 2017 as our Anniversary because although maybe it wasn’t “love at first sight” (we’ll blame Riley’s bike) we both went home thinking the same thing….this person could be the one!

Those good vibes continued while we were "boyfriend and girlfriend". We went on too many Mexico trips to count, drank beers on the Great Wall of China, and traveled all over Thailand. There, we were able to feed and ride elephants, eat amazing Thai cuisine, tuk tuk to and fro, and island hop on longboats. Maggie got to experience Stagecoach for the first time with the Heatons and had a great debut performance...she actually kind of enjoys country music now! Our ever-growing group of family and friends took us to places like Lake Tahoe and Naples, Florida for weddings that felt more like dance parties than they did actual ceremonies (hoping this holds true for ours too!). We cherish our beach-adjacent apartment in Hermosa Beach that we've called home since early 2018. Riley's been developing his brand in industrial real estate and Maggie has been working the front lines as a registered nurse while at the same time studying towards obtaining her Advanced Practice Nurse degree as a Family Nurse Practitioner. We enjoy weekends with friends and family, hanging at the beach, playing golf (Maggie's learning), and honing our culinary prowess. We're an optimistic household and are looking forward to a memorable 2021.

On Sunday, October 6th, 2019, Maggie had just gotten back from a weekend in Temecula celebrating her friend Kim Gardener's bachelorette. Meanwhile, for the past week Riley had been scheming a surprise engagement. Our neighbors at the time, Mary and Ryan, as well as Riley's mom Meredie, rose to the occasion to help Riley decorate the roof deck at our apartment and keep Maggie occupied during the setup. The plan was to go to dinner with Riley's family for a combined birthday celebration for Riley and his dad, Scott. We got ready for the evening and were supposed to walk down to dinner, but instead Riley swept Maggie upstairs towards the roof deck and opened the door. Maggie was met with a beautifully decorated deck that included lit candles, fresh flowers, and an oversized bottle of champagne. Riley got down on one knee and popped the question as the sun was setting behind us and Maggie said yes (surprise)! We popped the bubbly with a small group of family and friends who followed us down to celebrate with a larger group at The Deck...the first place Maggie and Riley met!