In summer of 2010 between 9th and 10th grade, Max texted Nicole asking if she wanted to go to the beach. He was 15. In his head, it was a date. On paper, it was a "chill 1x1 hang sesh". When Nicole got the text, in her head, it was also a date. This was just the first instance of Max and Nicole having this sort of simultaneous unspoken delusion. Nicole's older sister Kaylin dropped her off at the beach, because Nicole was also 15 and could not drive. They had their extremely chill hang sesh at the beach, and then walked to get sushi for dinner (an obvious choice for a low-pressure, casual meal to share with someone). There, they spent the entire meal clashing chopsticks because Nicole sat to the left of Max, who is famously left handed. After sushi, Max's mom Linda picked them up, because they still couldn't drive. As high school infatuation settled into something deeper, they slowly came to another silent but shared delusion: to just keep dating forever. Nicole went off to Berkeley, and Max stayed in San Diego for college. Some may credit their survival of the long distance phase to constant Skype calls and frequent visits, but Max and Nicole would like to specifically thank Mountain Dew for fueling Max's bi-monthly eight-hour drives, and the Auntie Anne's pretzels at the Oakland airport for a quick bite before Nicole's frequent flights to San Diego. After Nicole graduated college in 2017, she moved back to San Diego while Max finished his degree from UCSD. They lived separately with their best friends, Kelly and Carson, finally in the same city and able to see each other whenever they wanted. It still wasn't close enough. In 2018, they moved in together and adopted 2 kittens, Calcifer and Haku. Through world travels, a global pandemic, and raising two impressionable young cats, they ended up in Seattle. They're beyond excited to gather all their favorite people in one place to celebrate their wedding. Thank you for being a part of our story ♡

https://www.anker.place/ We've been together for fifteen years. When we finally decided to make it official, we wanted a day that felt like us: considered, unhurried, worth the wait. Anker is a 27-acre private estate on the Kitsap Peninsula: ancient maples, a working lavender farm, an orchard, a pond, and 2,000 acres of forest just beyond the gate. Our vows will be in a maple grove beneath a tree that has been here longer than any of us have. Dinner follows in the lavender field at one long table with everyone we love. July in Washington means the sun doesn't set until after nine, and this evening is built around that. The grounds are part of the evening and yours to wander between dances and bites of dessert. By the time it all winds down at ten, the sky will have only just remembered it was supposed to get dark.