It's happening!

We met the old-fashioned way - at work. From the second we shook hands at the office's lunch table, our attraction to each other was palpable. That same day we met we were on separate dates and bumped into each other on the Embarkadero. We had never run into anyone we knew in San Francisco so this was one hell of a coincidence. Over the next few months, we interacted quite a few times, but it was mostly small conversation and nervous glances across the tops of our desks.

Saint Patrick didn't know it, but this day in 2016 would mark the beginning of Christian and Jackie's love affair. After a long day at the office counting down the minutes to the happy hour, Chrisitan and Jackie both left work. One took a train to San Francisco to a pub, the other went to the airport to pick up their friend. Neither anticipated what the night had in store for them. With only 40 minutes left in the work happy hour Christian finally saw Jackie arrive. He had been worried she wouldn't be there at all and was relieved to hear that she would be joining his group of coworkers at the next bar. As the night wore on they drank some liquid courage and chatted about their lives. At some point, Jackie was craning her neck to listen to Christian's 6' 7" buddy talk about how great a person Christian is. And she couldn't agree more. From that day on they became inseparable.

The night before we went to dinner and out the night before with the homies - we drank way too many tequila shots and tiki drinks and stumbled home in the wee hours of the morning. Our first proper night out since March 2020. The next morning was May 8, 2021 and we were extremely hungover. Christian mentioned Grace planned a picnic in La Jolla so Jackie threw on a massive t-shirt, jeans, and grabbed a sweatshirt because California beaches can get windy and cold af! Christian asked if she was ready to which she confidently replied "Uh-huh!" Thankfully, James lightly suggested that we were planning to take pictures at the picnic and prompted her to change into something much cuter. Once we were settled at the picnic Christian immediately opened a beer and proposed a toast, but forgot no one else had drinks yet. We all grabbed a drink and Christian began his toast again. He had us stand up and only when he told Jackie to "put down your treat" did she notice he was a little nervous and shaky. And then he got down on one knee. We both kind of blacked out, but we're pretty sure he said something close to "I've always wanted to marry you. Will you marry me?" As well all know, she said yes. To celebrate, after the picnic we went home to have more drinks and ordered Chick Fil-A (per Jackie's request).