Our story began in 2016 when Rachel moved into a new house in Santa Barbara, CA. Her roommate's boyfriend was visiting for the weekend and invited Rachel to meet up with them downtown Santa Barbara. He happened to be Ryan's good friend from high school so Ryan also headed downtown to meet up. Rachel and Ryan first met at Dargan's Irish Pub. Ryan finished his shot while playing pool and they ended up dancing away the night together. Ryan asked Rachel to get sushi for their first date three days later and the rest is history!

We decided to have a special date night to celebrate our 5 year anniversary and Ryan told me he arranged a special dinner at a restaurant on the Sandpiper Golf Course that overlooks the ocean in Goleta, CA. At the time I wasn't aware that the restaurant was not open for dinner so when we arrived, the restaurant was closed and Ryan played it off as he must have gotten the reservation wrong. He still wanted to show me the walk from the golf course to the beach below and that maybe we can get a quick drink at the Bacara Hotel, that was also on the beach. I was hungry and freezing but agreed to walk on the beach with him because he looked so excited about showing it to me. We were walking for awhile and I told Ryan maybe we should just head back, and he answered, "do you see it yet?" I looked up and saw an aisle-way of red rose petals leading to a circle of candles and roses. I was in complete shock, could not hold back the tears and absolutely said YES! Everyone on the beach cheered and Ryan called over the photographer he hired to capture our special moment to take more photos. After a couple glasses of champagne, we walked to the Bacara Hotel where Ryan had really made the dinner reservation and had the best night celebrating!