Our greatest adventure yet!

It is March 2020, the world had not yet shut down, and Paige is visiting her mom for a week from New Zealand. This would be the week where Paige (and many others) had their lives flipped upside down. As with all of her visits home, Paige always made a point to go to Waimea Coffee Company although now with a newfound appreciation as a cafe manager of a busy city café in Auckland. Also, as a cafe manager, Paige knew the importance of telling managers that the business is doing an excellent job - the manager on duty that day? Max. Ahhh, love was in the air! Oh, wait. Not quite yet. Fast forward a year and a half, Paige had never returned to Aotearoa, so she became friends with the people she saw the most: Waimea Coffee Company crew. Some of that crew is also part of a band, SWEET AS! The band had a show coming up at the end of June, and was invited to the gig by the bassist, Chase Wood, and unbeknownst to her, he had quite a plan up his sleeve. All under the guise of "the gig," Chase managed to get Max: Paige's phone number, a two hour (round trip) car ride, AND a dance partner. There it is, love at first. . . gig? Wrong. Paige had her high school bestie, Emily and her husband visiting at the time, and at the end of the night after we dropped Max off at his truck, they shouted "YOU SHOULD DATE MAX!" Paige waved it off, "it's not like that," she said, "he's just one of my friends from the coffee shop." The next day, are you still reading? The very next day, Paige gets a phone call from Max. Assuming he had left something in her car--because in this day and age, who the heck calls someone without texting first--she asks if he called by mistake. Max responded, "I was actually just calling to talk." Turns out, he was a c t u a l l y calling to ask Paige to the beach, which is where the magic finally happened. Well, not quite yet. If you think this is drawn out, please consider how poor Max must have felt. After a beautiful afternoon at the beach, Paige and Max started spending nearly all their free time together going diving, snorkeling, hiking, driving, eating, etc. The love bug had bitten Max, and that's when Paige broke it to him "I'm not ready yet, I think I need a year off of dating. Besides, when I choose to date you, that means I have decided to marry you." Less than two weeks after that conversation, they ended up quarantined together for 10 days due to COVID. Paige started noticing the love bug around her, too, but her heart still was unsure. Finally, after six long months of spending more and more time together, Paige turned to Max and said, "okay, I'm in." Trying to contain his excitement, Max replied matter of factly, "but it's only been six months, are you sure you don't need a year?" "Would you like me to take it back?" "Nope, no, I would not." The next month, Max jetted off to Wisconsin for the holidays to meet Paige's family, and just a couple months after that, they were off to Peru to trek 50 miles through the Andes to see Machu Picchu. In just a few short years together, Max and Paige have had several stunning adventures together. The one they are looking forward to the most right now? Their journey into marriage with one another, uniting as husband and wife with all of their beloved family and friends they've met along the way.