Dating apps suck... until you find the one for you! Kim and I met via the Hinge dating app back in January 2021. After exchanging pleasantries we both got down to brass tacks: Where is the best Mexican food in Seattle? Fast forward a few weeks and we agreed to go on a date ... in person...during a pandemic! We braved the storm amid potential viral infection and frigid weather for some cocktails. Much to Kim's displeasure, we sat outside in the cold at Stampede Cocktail Club sipping on cocktails with names like Memorey Blade and Thieves Guild getting to know each other. We grew hungry and decided to wander down the street to a place called Kin Lin, a Thai street food restaurant in Fremont, Seattle. As we walked down the block, arm in arm, our boots matching pace, I felt a soft glow of an ember in that cold air. Naturally, being the sometimes aloof overthinker I can be, I failed to ask Kim for her number. Luckily, I had just found the most amazing and gracious human being. I was on the phone driving back from this date, talking to a friend about how I had just bombed this date, when I got a text message from a 951 area code. I couldn't stop smiling all the way home. We began to talk regularly and I promised to take her to somewhere warmer next time we went out (it took us a few months, Seattle can be cold!) And the rest is history. We enjoy our time away from work camping, hiking, biking, watching movies, having rooftop pot lucks, and winter walks in the snow. Come celebrate with us!

One thing Kim and John have always been is honest with each other and their intentions to make a life together. For this reason they decided to talk openly about getting married and decided to design the engagement ring and wedding bands together. When the engagement ring was finished, all John had to do was find the right time to “surprise” Kim with “The Question.” After a month of stressing and reaching out to Kim’s parents to let them know his intentions, John reached a conclusion: It didn’t matter where he proposed, but what he and Kim were doing when he did. Kim and John have a dream of providing a place for local families to plant and maintain their own urban garden. They have been actively looking for groups to get involved with to help in this effort. To this end John decided where he would ask Kim to marry him. John and Kim would take nightly walks during the spring/summer after work to catch up and bond over the hardships of the day. Often we were accompanied by their late pup Roman. One crisp night in January, John and Kim set out on a nighttime stroll around their neighborhood. John subtly led Kim to the nearby community garden. He knelt down under the dim of a street lamp, gently held her hand and asked her to marry him. Through tears of joy and exuberance, Kim replied “Yes!” They celebrated with champagne once they got home. Cheers!