A Sanchez Wedding!

Well, I used to give lessons to Mr. Eric Connell. It started out with guitar lessons, but turned into production lessons and eventually recording his first solo single. I hung out with Eric a few times, including my birthday. He told me he wanted to start a band with his best friend, Ashley, and that he would like me to record them. In March 2021, Eric contacted me to book the recording date. The first time I met Ashley was when I opened my garage. I didn’t even see Eric or remember him being there - all I saw was Ashley walking up the driveway with a guitar. I said “Hello!” and she said “Holy fuck! I didn’t see you there!” and those were her first words to me. I laughed. As the recording sessions progressed, I found Ashley’s work ethic very admirable. I also found out that she is very talented, which naturally caught my attention. I found myself becoming very curious about her, but I wanted to keep everything as professional as possible. I rarely spoke to her, mainly Eric - as we already have a great relationship and I didn’t know her much. Ashley, being the outgoing person she is, would always make jokes in the recording sessions to keep the energy and spirits up - to which I would laugh hysterically for 2 seconds and very abruptly stop laughing and go back into business mode. Basically, I avoided her like the plague. One evening during the sessions, Ashley had to look after my dog, Amiyah. It was very sweet of her. After the session, I sent her a thank you text which read “Thanks for looking after Amiyah today.” It was one of the first times I talked with her outside of the recording sessions - opening communication between us. One evening, she sent me a text inviting me to Eric’s surprise birthday party. Me being the supportive producer that I am *wink wink*, of course I went. Meanwhile - I asked my brother, Jerald, if he could come with me. I thought the drummer kind of digs me and I couldn’t take it anymore. I was just a little curious and I would like to find out what is going on. By this point, Jerald and my whole family could already tell that I was crushing on the drummer. Jerald said “Oh, you want to go hang out with your girlfriend?” To which I replied - “Shut up, dude. Just go with me.” So we got to the party and I ended up sitting next to her the whole night. We had a lot of great conversations about music, art, politics, religion, and more. I found her very fascinating. Before you know it, the sun was coming up and everybody else around us was falling asleep while we were in deep conversation. It felt like everybody was there just to help us finally hang out. Our following recording session was a long, grueling vocal session. I didn’t feel awkward at all. But I noticed something was different. The session ended around midnight. Me and Eric had a beer to celebrate and called it a night. The next time me and Ashley talked was the following Saturday. I received a text from Ashley about Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” movie. I had been wanting to watch it, and I thought it was pretty cool that she wanted to watch it too. I showed Jerald the text and said “I think she wants to hang out.” And he said “Go watch the movie with her!” I invited her over to watch it. We hung out that night again until after sunrise. We laughed, had a few drinks, had a walk in the park, picked up the conversation where we left off, and got some crepes. We continued to text each other after. We ended up setting up our first actual hang out at Golden Tiki where we had our first kiss. The next night we had our first official date. On the car ride on the way there, she told me she was in the process of moving to LA and was not expecting to meet me. She wanted to make it work and she asked - “It might be a long shot, maybe I’m throwing too much out there, but I’m willing to give this a go if you are.” And then we barely ate any dinner at Panchos. That’s it. Yeah.

When I was in NY, my best friend Chuchee (Eric Connell) started taking guitar lessons with a Mr. Jared Sanchez. I’d frequently call Chuchee to catch up and he'd keep me updated about his lessons and the solo project Jared was producing. I moved back to Vegas in February 2020 and Chuchee and I began to write again. After a few months, we were ready to hit the studio. Our first recording session was on April 25, 2021 at Hammsterden Records. The thing I remember most from that day was the pure frustration that comes with tracking drums. Also, meeting the love of my life, but you know, no big deal right? Over the next few months, we spent more time with Jared in the recording studio. The interest I had in him grew stronger and stronger as we all got to know each other more. I was in awe with the love for his family, his passion for his career and music, and the way he looked at the world that was so evident in all he did. The list goes on. This slowly turned into bringing him coffees before our sessions, looking nice for our studio days, and cracking jokes to make him laugh. Jared would NEVER laugh at my jokes. The most I could get him to do was laugh for a second and then go back into a straight face. He also barely spoke to me. I thought he barely liked me as a person. But the few times I did manage to get him to laugh, priceless. I couldn’t be in the room alone with him without getting so nervous that I had to leave. I giggled when we’d speak, I’d blush, I’d get so giddy. I was a wreck. I liked him so much. I could barely hide it. Chuchee made so much fun of me for it. I would always ask Chuchee “Do you think he likes me?” On July 3, 2021 - I hosted a birthday party for Chuchee. I was DETERMINED to hang out with Jared. When we all sat down at the bar, I sat right next to him. We actually ended up sitting next to each other the entire night. We shared a drink, our group stayed out until sunrise, and we had a lot of conversation. After talking with Jared for hours, I was so head over heels for him. The next recording session after Chuchee’s birthday was so awkward. I couldn’t look Jared in the eyes at all or I would burst into nervous laughter. The following Saturday, July 10, 2021 - I took a solo hiking trip to Zion. As I was unwinding from the trip, I saw the documentary “Summer of Soul” on Hulu. Remembering part of our many conversations from Chuchee’s birthday party, I text Jared a screenshot of the film and tell him he might like it. In a surprising turn of events - he responds and tells me we should watch it. We paused the film every 3 minutes to talk. I spent the entire time on the far opposite side of the couch as him - I was very nervous but so caught up in conversation. We ended up taking a long walk in the park under the stars and got breakfast after. This was the night that started it all. Following the “Summer of Soul” night - we began texting back and forth frequently. This led to a casual planning of a non-date to a bar in town called Golden Tiki. The entire night we spent scooting closer and closer to each other in the booth and enjoying the band playing surf tunes. Jared and I walked up to look at a display case of shrunken heads at Golden Tiki, including David Bowie, etc. Then I finally turned to him and said “Hey… do you want to… like… kiss in front of these shrunken heads?” On September 11, 2021 - Jared asked me to marry him in the same spot we had our first kiss - in front of those shrunken heads. There is so much more to the story than this 4000 character limit allows. Together, we have worked through so much. There are tons I could say about him in gratitude and to describe what I love about him, but I’d be writing forever. All I know is I’ve found the love of my life, my future husband, and the person I want to do everything with. And yes, he laughs at all my jokes now. Every day is my favorite day when I’m with him.