Mark and a few of his coworkers were out for a scotch tasting class after work in Fremont, WA. After the class they moved over to the Red Door to help celebrate one of his coworker's daughter's going away party. Mark's coworker and Michelle's friend Emily invited Michelle out to meet her at the Red Door for drinks. Michelle had recently injured her ankle playing soccer. Thinking she was just meeting Emily for a drink, she threw on a pair of sweats over her walking boot, put her hair on top of her head and headed out. When she walked up to the group, Mark was immediately drawn to her beautiful blue eyes and smile. They quickly discovered a shared love of travel and exchanged numerous stories about destinations they had been to and where they hoped to travel to next. As you all know by now, Mark is not a very fast mover; so they did not meet again until April. After the scotch class, Mark took a bourbon class and on his world travels started hitting up the duty free shops and collecting bottles to share with his friends when he returned. Michelle of course had continued traveling and amassing a collection of her own. In a few short months the collection was large enough to warrant having a "mule party". In April Mark's coworker Dave hosted the party and Emily made sure Michelle was going to be there. After the party Mark was trying to find a way to continue the evening, so he summoned the courage and awkwardly walked up to Michelle's Jeep and stammered, "So, where's the after party?" Thankfully Michelle was feeling charitable and offered to meet at a restaurant near her place in Wallingford. When asked what she thought the meaning of life was, she quickly responded, "Making memories!", like there was never any other answer to consider and we've been making memories ever since!

The trip to Ireland & Italy in January was the perfect opportunity to propose! I was very nervous about carrying around the ring while traveling internationally. We first flew to Ireland to meet Rachael, one of Michelle's best friends growing up. The plan was to drive up to Belfast and the Giant's Causeway; I thought this would be a perfect place to propose and Rachael could snap some pics. At least that was the plan. It was windy and raining sideways and I failed to coordinate with Rachael beforehand. We were standing on the top of a very slippery and windswept rocks in the North Sea and Rachael could not hear me shouting for her to take one more picture as I struggled to try and pull the ring box out of my soaked jacket! Epic Fail! Now what? Wait of course! Rome, the eternal city with all of it's historic sites seemed like a great opportunity, but the moment just never seemed right. The first night we were in Florence, we were out exploring the city & realized it was going to be a beautiful sunset & we were close a famous city overlook. We raced to the top & discovered an absolutely stunning sunset. The only problem was I had inexplicably left the ring back at our Airbnb! So I waited again, until it was just the two of us on the last day we were in Florence & I made-up a very thin story about wanting to go back up to the scenic overlook for sunset on our last evening in town, but of course it was cloudy. Michelle was a good sport as we walked back up to the top of the lookout. Now I just needed to find someone to take some pictures! Finally a woman walked by and I handed her my phone and I thought (and apparently said outloud) "Here goes nothing!" As I got down on one knee all the poignant and beautiful things I had rehearsed to say went sailing out of my brain & all I said was, "Miss Michelle Parrish, will you marry me?" Michelle rightfully expecting more said, "Is that it?!" I asked if that was a yes and she still stunned and in disbelief said, "YES!".

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