~Prequel~ Iain & Sakiko originally had a highly overlapping circle in UCM (a Christian club at UBC they were both involved with). Over the 8 months or so there together, they had a couple brief semi-interactions, after which Iain knew who Sakiko was but she never gave him a second thought. ~Meeting Online~ Once Covid started, some of their mutual friends made a Facebook group chat to watch movies together every Friday evening (s/o Movie Squad). It was here that Sakiko finally put a face to the name she had heard so frequently from their mutual friends. ~Online "Friending"~ In an effort to become more than just online acquaintances, Iain slid into Sakiko’s DMs (innocently, so he claims) to bond over Calpis (a Japanese soft drink) which she’d posted on her Instagram. This sparked a ton more messaging (it was Covid, there was nothing else to do anyways), and then soon after they started watching (mostly Studio Ghibli) movies, just the two of them, and then facetiming into the early hours of the morning. ~Re-entering Society~ As it got into summer, things finally started opening up a bit more, so Iain and Sakiko decided it was time to actually hang out in person. The first time they hung out one-on-one, they spent 12 whole hours together (not dating btw). They got coffee, walked along Kitsilano beach (where they saw an eagle pluck a seagull … yup), and made their public “just friends” debut at a UCM picnic worship event. Afterwards, Iain bought Sakiko's Rain or Shine ice cream (👀) and they spent a few hours wandering and talking along the water at Granville Island, covering existential topics such as what their greatest life ambitions were or dictating the life of a goose they were watching (s/o Becky the goose). ~DTR~ Finally, their next hangout, Iain asked Sakiko out on an official date. Their first date was on Canada Day and there were literal fireworks going off - Iain set some off at the beach to end the night. After seeing each other for a few weeks to make sure the vibes were good, they made things official over a (messy, cutlery-less Nandos) picnic at Iona Jetty, which then became their go-to anniversary spot (and where they got engaged!) ~Poppin' the Question~ After just over 4 years of dating, Iain planned an elaborate ruse to somehow try to propose without Sakiko figuring it out too soon. (There’s only 1 road into/out of Iona Jetty, making this a challenging task.) This plan involved getting the ring flown up from Los Angeles 2 weeks before they had flights to go down & get it together (s/o the future in-laws), lying about his parents planning an inconvenient biking trip to Iona Jetty before dinner (s/o the other future in-laws), and finally getting down on one knee in the sand. Despite the plan being extraordinarily sus & overly-elaborate, Sakiko’s gullibility pulled through, and they lived happily ever after… until they started planning a wedding. Just kidding lol.