the unbreakable vow

Hello Everyone, Thank you all for your congratulations and well wishes for our new life together. We were very pleased that the universe aligned and allowed us to move ahead with our wedding ceremony due to its small size on June 19th, 2020. We are thankful that our non-traditional wedding plan for an intimate ceremony was our saving grace in this situation, and timing worked out just right that we were able to get married on our original date. We have a video of our special day to share with you: https://vimeo.com/441639150 Being the reception with all of our family and friends is a large gathering, we just do not feel that everyone will be comfortable with a large event any time in the foreseeable future. We have made the decision to cancel our reception. We are disappointed that we won't have the opportunity to celebrate with all of you together as planned, but are looking forward to seeing everyone after the worst of the pandemic has passed. We continue to wish you all health and happiness in 2021. Love always, Stephanie & Nick

Back in the 2000's there was this thing called "MySpace" - the precursor to Facebook, MySpace was THE social network used to stay in touch with friends, share photos, stories and interact with people online. One day Stephanie got a message from Nick...she thought he was cute so they started chatting. They never met, but every now and then they would exchange notes back and forth. Flash forward to a few months later, and Stephanie went out with a family friend who suggested they go to a bar where "a friend" of his worked. Stephanie thought, "hmm that is where Nick works, I wonder if we will run into him...?" and the "friend" who worked at the bar happened to be Nick - small world! Nick didn't put two and two together that Stephanie in person was the same Stephanie from MySpace until later, but as soon as she met him in person, Stephanie knew there was something different about Nick. Over the following years, while there was definite chemistry, Nick & Stephanie were kind of off and on - there would be months that they spent a lot of time together and then months would pass without any contact. There was something there, but it never really grew into anything serious - the timing was never really right. Nick eventually moved to Southern California, and other than a random message here or there, they lost touch. Years passed, life went on, but neither one of them were able to find someone who was the right fit and who they saw a future with. In February of 2018, Nick decided to make a life change and move from LA to Portland. He stayed in San Jose for a couple of days on his drive up, and saw that Stephanie was in town (this was when she traveled for work 90% of the time) and asked her out for lunch. She was hesitant but agreed...their lunch ended up lasting 11 hours that day and they have been inseparable since.

While not easy, Nick & Stephanie were sure that things were right, and they made long distance work after Nick moved to Portland. Thankfully Stephanie's job was flexible and she was able to spend a couple weeks at a time up in Oregon with Nick, and they really loved being able to explore a new city together and start building their life together. Their first vacation together was about 6 months after they started dating, and they spent a week in Oahu and Maui. During their trip, they exchanged their first "I love you" and never looked back. The next challenge was figuring out how to close the distance to be together. Stephanie looked for new opportunities in Portland, but Nick was presented with an opportunity to move back to the Bay Area and almost one year to the day from when he moved to Portland, Nick moved to California. Because they so enjoyed the exploring they did in Oregon, they made it their goal to never give up their adventurous spirit and spend a lot of their time together exploring new places near home, taking vacations and staycations, hiking local trails, and checking out festivals and special events.

In September 2019, Nick and Stephanie planned a trip to Europe to meet up with Nick's family in Paris after they finished up a European River Cruise. Their trip started with four days in Rome; filled with food tours, exploring Roman ruins, espresso, Colosseo, fresh Italian wine tasting in Frascati, gelato, and LOTS of caccio e pepe. They loved being able to walk out the door of their AirBnB, pick a direction, and just walk and find something interesting to explore. After Rome, they met up with everyone in Paris for a few days and it was great to be able to enjoy the city with loved ones. They went on a number of tours around the city to see the sights, taste local desserts, and went to a wine and cheese pairing in Paris's oldest wine cellar. The highlight of the trip was going on a Siene River Dinner Cruise with everyone. The cruise was beautiful, it started at the base of the Eiffel Tower and was at sunset on a boat with a glass atrium to take in all of the sights and lights of everything on banks of the Siene. After dinner, as the boat was about to pass by the Eiffel Tower and Stephanie suggested going out on the boat deck to take a picture with it. As they stood on the deck taking in the lights of the Paris at night, Stephanie said "I could do this forever", to which Nick replied, "Could you really do this forever?" and he proceeded to take a knee and propose. Stephanie immediately said "yes", apparently before he even got to ask the "official" question (especially because she was terrified he would accidentally drop the ring into the river before he got it on her finger!) and thankfully his family had been tipped off that he would pop the question that night, so Nick's dad was able to film their special moment. After saying goodbye to the family, Nick & Stephanie went onto Mykonos, Greece to celebrate their engagement surrounded by sunshine, turquoise waters, sailing, and some of the freshest food they had on the entire trip. The trip was absolutely perfect!

Please enjoy the wedding video: https://vimeo.com/441639150 Those who know Nick and Stephanie well know that they love traditions, but are a bit relaxed and non-traditional when it comes to the way they live their life. Their wedding was no different, and thankfully so...they were able to have the ceremony basically as planned even during the pandemic! Considering they had already planned to have a small and intimate ceremony, the wedding took place on June 19th, 2020 at a private estate in Morgan Hill. They were beyond grateful to able to exchange their vows in an intimate setting and share a wonderful (socially-distanced) evening with those closest to them - something extra special considering life in 2020. All of you were there in spirit with the couple, and they look forward to being able to celebrate with each and every one of you in the future.

Since they decided to keep the wedding small but still have a lot of people they care about and who are very important to them, Stephanie and Nick wanted to have a really fun and casual reception to celebrate. By splitting up the wedding and the reception, they look forward to having less time devoted to wedding day responsibilities and therefore more time with everyone to really be able to enjoy spending the day with their guests - and something that turned out to be a blessing, allowing them to continue with the wedding ceremony as planned. Both coming from the hospitality industry, they want their guests have a great time, so they want everyone to ditch the formal wear and join them in celebrating their wedding with food trucks, lawn games and wine - more details to follow when a plan can be firmed up!