It all started on a summer vacation Zach took with his friend Stuart back in 2013. The two started their trip in Seattle where they celebrated the Fourth of July before heading up to Vancouver. The Northwest was such a hit that the two of them, joined by a third pal Erik, decided to return a year and a half later to celebrate the holidays in B.C. Despite the frigid conditions, the three friends had a blast once again. They even decided to extend the trip an extra night. Well… kinda... The three amigos decided it would be a cool idea to book a flight with a layover through Seattle on their way home. It just so happened that Air Canada had a cheap option that was scheduled to fly out of B.C. in the late afternoon, arrive in Seattle for a ~10hr layover and finally return to SF the following morning. Even though the trio had not booked a place to stay in Seattle, they figured at worst they could pull an all-nighter after grabbing a meal and seeing what the Emerald City nightlife had to offer. The ideation didn’t stop there though... the group remembered their friend Jason had been dating a former Seattleite (Dara) and perhaps she would introduce them to some locals... Always better to visit a city through the eyes of its residents the group thought so they asked her for introductions. Dara connected the boys with a couple of her friends from back home with no hesitation. And to be clear for the baby boomers reading this “connect” = group text message thread where although you technically have the ability to ignore or leave the message, the social psychology is about the furthest thing from a double-opt-in email intro. Enter Rachel.

For those who know Rachel, punctuality is non-negotiable. You can imagine how excited she was to hear that the boys flight was delayed an hour plus and that dinner reservations had to be pushed back (important to remind the audience that this is New Years’ Day which added a bit of insult to injury). Fortunate for the boys, she let the tardiness slide and didn’t stand them up. When the clock struck 9pm, Rachel, along with another friend of Dara’s, reluctantly met the guys in Ballard for a meal. Despite the rocky start, dinner wasn’t a disaster -- aka no one spilt anything and the out of towners picked up the tab -- the least they could do considering the circumstances. By most measures, it was a pretty ordinary gathering of semi-strangers that had a loose connection. The funny thing about life though is that just when the ordinary feels calculated and comfortable, a curve ball typically shakes things up. Zach didn’t know it before the dinner plans were set in motion, but life dealt his status as a single bachelor Nolan Ryan in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. And from the first smile Rachel shared post ice-breaker (courtesy of Erik no doubt), Zach knew this was no ordinary encounter. The chemistry that followed turned a one-night meet-up into weeks of long distance contact, that turned into months of back-and-forth trips, that turned into a move to San Francisco, and a happily-ever-after typically reserved for motion pictures. Sorry to disappoint the millennials reading this, but there wasn’t a dating app on the planet that could have threaded the needle on this. Sometimes there just isn’t a substitute for a warm referral combined with a little peer pressure :)

This past Christmas, Rachel and Zach were back in Seattle to spend the holidays with Rachel’s parents. Per the usual, Rachel had plans mapped out for pretty much the entire trip. This is normally a godsend so that the two of them get the most out of their time up north, but in this case Zach had plans that he couldn’t share with Rachel, yet somehow needed to carveout space for on the calendar. Fortunately Andie, Rachel’s childhood best friend/sister came to the rescue. Andie had suggested an afternoon in Ballard to meet up for drinks (something that Zach couldn’t dictate without setting off alarm bells). When Andie ending up running “late”, Zach had the perfect opportunity to suggest a stroll by the original restaurant where the couple met. After staring through the windows and reminiscing about that night for a few moments, Rachel turned around and began to walk back towards the sidewalk. Before she could take more than a few steps however, she felt Zach pull back on her hand. When she turned around, she found Zach kneeling on the ground and immediately shouted “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” After a few blacked-out seconds, a couple tries to the ring on the right finger, and A LOT of tears, Rachel said yes only to find her Dad Roger playing paparazzi from across the street to capture the whole thing on camera. Almost four years later to the day, in front of the original restaurant where the two met, Rachel and Zach became engaged.