The story of how we met starts on New Year's Eve, 2018. I was staying in San Francisco at my friend, and now bridesmaid, Maddie's apartment, as I wasn't moving into my apartment in the city for another week. When I arrived in the city that evening, we were getting ready to go out for the night with a few friends when Maddie asked if I was on Hinge. Having no idea what that was, Maddie shared it was the dating app that everyone in SF was using, and that I had to download it and make a profile. I wasn't really looking to start dating anyone at the time as I was just getting my feet underneath me with my post grad life and first big adult move to the city, but I thought - what did I have to lose? The next thing I knew, it was now New Year's Day 2019 and lo and behold, I had a match on Hinge! He opened up with a message saying "Happy New Year's from my hangover to yours" and at the time I thought that was the MOST clever thing I'd ever heard - and Rob now swears I'm the only girl who got that clever message that day ;) After some light back and forth and me admitting that I actually didn't live in the city quite yet, we set up a date for the following Thursday so Rob could help me explore my new neighborhood. When the day finally rolled around, I was a little nervous about my first date from a dating app. Rob had suggested we meet up at a restaurant a few blocks away from my apartment for a drink, so to ease my nerves my roommate (and now bridesmaid) Laney offered to do a walk by of the restaurant with me so I knew where I was going in a few hours. We took off on our walk to the restaurant, only to find that it was closed for renovations and had moved temporarily into the grocery store next door. Cue me now full on panicking that I was going on a first date with this man I didn't know in a grocery store! Rob obviously didn't know the restaurant was not fully operable and I couldn't admit to him that I was a headcase that did a walk by of our date spot a few hours before, so I did a quick google search to find an article that talked about the restaurant's temporary grocery store move. I sent it to Rob under the disguise that I had been trying to look up the drink menu. Thankfully, Rob was cool under pressure and picked another bar close by for us to meet at. We met up at Horsefeather that night and, although I probably only said ten words the entire time we were at that bar (again, nervous), we continued the night at an arcade bar called Emporium next door. We ended up staying out until 1am, laughing and playing games, until we realized we had to work the next day and Rob walked me home like the gentleman he is. He texted me the next morning and as they say... the rest is history!

Our February 2022 engagement actually started on New Years Eve 2020 when, while discussing what we were manifesting for 2021, Megan not-so-subtlety said “a ring.” Something that was already on my mind, but I appreciated the added encouragement. After a whirlwind year of weddings, covid, and travel, it was suddenly October and I didn’t have a ring. As I worked on designing the perfect ring, I devised a plan for a buzzer-beating proposal over New Years in Cabo San Lucas. Pro tip: when planning a surprise engagement trip, don’t use your partner’s frequent flyer number.. because it’ll show up in their United app.. which Megan discovered a few weeks later. As I explained it away as a surprise Christmas present, Meg indicated that she didn’t really want to go amidst our busy holiday schedule (jokes on her!). Back to the drawing board. We decided to make it a Christmas & Valentine’s Day trip to Cabo in February, and I quickly got to planning the proposal. As we arrived in Cabo, Megan had an inkling that something could be happening, but she expected that I’d want to offload the ring as quickly as possible (shoutout Max & Logan). When it didn’t happen on night #1, she defeatedly told friends it “probably wasn’t happening this trip,” and told herself she was just going to enjoy the rest of the vacation. Never intending to propose on night #1, I was just focused on the next day while hiding the ring inside a pair of socks. On the big day, I was drowning my anxiety in strawberry daiquiris while Megan, blissfully unaware, relaxed and read her book. That evening, we had a ~romantic~ private dinner for two on the beach. We got dressed up and headed out for a pre-dinner stroll on the beach. A short ways down the beach, surrounded by no one (except a sneaky photographer), I popped the question and she said yes! As I had to remind Megan, who blacked out in that moment, I did get down on one knee. After the proposal, Megan was too shocked to eat our nice private dinner, but in my state of relief, I scarfed down both of our surf & turfs. We spent the next few days on cloud 9 (and at Mango Deck), and feeling the love from countless texts and FaceTimes from friends and family. We were welcomed back to SF with a celebration with Megan’s family in Pleasanton, followed by a visit from my parents. Then we were on to wedding planning!