Like many couples these days, we connected through the power of the internet on the dating app Coffee Meets Bagel. While most courtships in the digital age can be quite the chase, little did we know we wouldn't meet in-person for another 6 months! Roma was busy studying for the bar exam and wrangling a night out with her was more challenging than Milan expected. We met at a bar in Hollywood and were instantly intrigued. We had a feeling we'd be in each other’s lives in a big way - though Milan had come straight from work and left the date early to avail himself of his favorite taco truck nearby. It was awkward… Despite ditching Roma to eat tacos “in private”, Milan clearly left an impression and Roma memorialized the start of their romance in a Los Angeles Times essay. https://www.latimes.com/style/laaffairs/la-hm-la-affairs-roma-patel-20171209-story.html We’ve tackled many challenges and have had even more adventures together. Now we’re ready to celebrate making it “official” with you!

By 2018 we were in the thick of a long-distance relationship. Milan was following his dream to pursue a career on the creative side of the entertainment industry. He was in Mumbai, living on his own and working at a frantic pace. Roma was in the trenches of law firm life, working on mergers and acquisitions and learning just how dysfunctional and profit minded the healthcare industry really is. We really missed each other. An engagement was on the horizon but once again we found ourselves trying to solve for space and time. Not one to miss out on a good story, Milan leaned into the coincidence that our names are also cities in Italy by planning a rendezvous to Lake Como. It was a perfect global midpoint. Not knowing what he was getting into, Milan planned a scenic hike on the mountainous Swiss-Italian border, where he’d propose. The night before, Milan nervously fixated on the next day’s increasingly challenging logistics, failing to fully enjoy the delicious truffle potato soup we were eating. Roma decided to put him out of his misery by suggesting a simpler, local hike—causing Milan more heartburn as he scrambled to find a closer romantic alternative. We took a bus to the base of Mount Grona near Menaggio and started climbing. Roma had accidently found the ring in Milan’s backpack earlier but pretended she didn’t know what was going to happen at the top of the mountain. Four hours, one wrong turn, lots of sweat and laughter later we sat in a meadow on a cliff overlooking Lake Como. Milan recited a poem he’d written for Roma when we’d first started dating, adding new verses that ended in a proposal. Roma said 'Yes!', we cried, took in the view and ran down the mountain with grins on our faces to catch the last bus back to town.