We're getting married!

Pat and Julie went to the same high school! Pat was 2 grades above Julie and knew who she was, but she didn't know who he was (even though he was the star football player ;)) A few years after they both graduated from college, they ran into each other at a bar. Pat saw Julie with a mutual friend (shoutout to Basmah) and asked who she was, not recognizing the former nerdy (what he likes to call "punk rock" high school version of Julie). He was smitten from the start but didn't make any sort of move that night, not even to get her phone number! A few months went by, and it was then Thanksgiving. Julie nonchalantly slid into his Instagram DM's to comment on how jealous she was that his family was deep-frying a turkey (shoutout to the Tonn family). Nothing significat happened from this conversation either, aside from the turkey. A bit more time passed and it was then December 2017. Pat went to his friend Jake's company Christmas party, where he ran into Tracey Zemer. Pat knows Tracey through her daughter Mollie who he was close with in high school, and Tracey is like a mentor/second mom to Julie. They were both a little tipsy and got to chatting about whether Pat was seeing anyone. She mentioned knowing a few girls from Arcadia being single, and he said "Well if we're talking about Arcadia girls, I think this girl Julie Whittaker is really cute". She beamed with delight and said "Julie?! She's like my second daughter!" The following day, Tracey called Julie right away and said she had to go on a date with Pat Schrimsher if the opportunity arose. Low and behold that exact same night, Pat and Julie both swiped right on the dating app, Bumble. (They came to find out that she was on the verge of deleting the app that same day, and he had just downloaded it that same day.) About a week after chatting through the app and texting, they went on their first date to a restaurant called Pitch where they sipped red wine and chatted for hours. The rest is truly history.

It was Thanksgiving, and Julie and Pat when to pick up her mom, Gina (she was meeting his whole family for the first time that day) and the car ride there, she remember felt so strange. Her mom is usually talkative, but was super quiet that entire ride. Pat on the other hand was acting very hyper and talkative, which was also a tad bit unusual. When they arrived at his parents house, they went outside to their beautiful backyard to "take Christmas card photos." this was quite normal, but once they whipped out the tripod and said "let's get a picture of just Pat and Julie." she knew they were all up to something. She put her hand on his chest for a pose, and felt a *thump* *thump* *thump* and thought "oh gosh, what is happening right now" -- he turned and looked at her and said "Julie, I want to spend the rest of my life with you" got down and on knee, and asked her to marry him. The waterworks started immediately!! It was short and sweet and they both essentially "blacked out" in the moment but luckily (thanks to his family and the tripod) have the whole thing on video with lots of pictures. They popped some champagne and spent the rest of the day calling family and close friends. There was just a loving peaceful feeling that whole day and it felt so special and surreal.