Let's celebrate, Finally!

We met our junior year (2011) at Monte Vista High School in Alamo, CA. We had photo class and chemistry class together (we know--how ironic). We weren't exactly friends, just lab partners. And when we say partners, we mean Jess did the homework and Nic sometimes scribbled in his answers last minute from Jess' paper. Fast forward to our senior year of high school and thanks to our friends, our groups merged and we ended up getting to know each other better. From football games, to after school Starbucks runs, we quickly found ourselves tied to each other's hip. With a little push from our friends, Nic asked me out on a date after school in the parking lot. OF COURSE I said yes, thinking: why not! But little did we know that random lab partner we had in junior year chem would become our partner for life.

We were on a dream vacation for the summer. Tiny home? Heck yes! Yellowstone National Park? Heck yes! A perfect week for us. We (Jess) planned this vacation for months. So when one of our excursions of horseback riding "changed" from a group horse ride to a private horse ride, I figured I simply forgot that we booked a private ride since it was booked months prior. So I shrugged it off while he was nervously hoping I wouldn't catch on. We get to the ranch and now the private ride comes with a private photographer.... And I'm still not catching on. We ride to the top of a mountain in the Gallatin forest and get this spectacular view of a meadow with bright wildflowers looking out at Yellowstone. We hop off our horses to take in the view. In awe of the view, I barely catch him getting down on one knee next to me. Then he asked me to be his forever!

When COVID-19 came onto the scene, we were deep into wedding planning. Appointments with wedding planners, cake tastings, dress fittings, the works. We kept hope that our original plan to wed the summer of 2020 would still happen. Around May of 2020 and no end in sight, we made the difficult decision to delay our celebration. During the stay-at-home orders that spring & early summer, we were reminded about what really mattered when it came to our wedding: our commitment and love to one another. So, we called our photographer, emailed an officiant off of Yelp, and I went back to the wedding dress store and grabbed something from their clearance rack. We decided to marry in front of the granite giants in Yosemite National Park. We woke up at 4am to beat the crowds (and heat!) and delivered our vows to each other as mother nature watched on. Although we missed our family and friends immensely, we couldn't have thought of a better way to start off our marriage. In short: the day was perfect. We thank many of our family and friends for waiting this pandemic out to celebrate our marriage together finally! We plan to reaffirm our vows to one another, for all our loved ones to hear. And to party finally!