See you so soon!

For those of you who don't already know, Jeff and I met July 20, 2019 at Zuni Street Brewing Company in Denver, Colorado. Jeff had already been living in Colorado for nine years and I moved out the year prior. To make a very complicated story of how we met simple, we'll start with the basics. Jeff has known one of his best friends, Graham, since college and they both moved to the mountains after they graduated. Graham's cousin happens to be Diana, who I met back in 2009 while working retail in Florida. We were fast friends and stayed close for the past 12 years. When Diana and her husband were visiting Denver the summer of 2019, they asked if I wanted to go with them to a brewery where her cousin was attending an event that night. So I went, we met and we've been together ever since. We've actually been running in and out of the same circle of friends for almost 10 years. Pretty cool, right?

After only a few months of dating, we knew we wanted to be together for the rest of our lives. So when the time was right, Jeff called up my mom and step dad to ask for permission while I was visiting in Florida. Me being in Florida is an important part of the story because when I was about 12 years old, I fell in love with my Grandma's engagement ring. Her and my grandpa celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary before my grandpa passed in 2012. Before it was my Grandma's ring, it was her mother's ring. My Grandma gave me the ring just before I moved out to Colorado, and it's been in Florida ever since. So, Jeff and my mom concocted a plan for me to smuggle my own ring back to Colorado without me knowing. My mom actually sewed the ring into an armpit of a shirt she bought for Jeff's "birthday." It's a good thing they did, because I checked my suitcase, the wrapped shirts and even the tissue paper for the ring, and to my displeasure, it wasn't there.

Jeff and I bought our first house in September 2020 in Lakewood, Colorado. A month after we moved in, we began fostering a two-year-old German Short-Haired Pointer/Blue Heeler mix that we named Harley. We fell in love with her quickly and found out two weeks later that she was pregnant. Two weeks after that, Harley had eight beautiful puppies on Saturday, November 28, 2020, beginning at 9:58 a.m. This was actually the morning Jeff and I were supposed to go on a hike in Evergreen where he was going to propose and his sister, Kristyn, was going to take photos of the moment. Instead, we were home birthing eight little puppies and caring for Harley into the early afternoon. Later that night when we were alone and when I was surrounded by all the puppies in their puppy box, Jeff asked me to be with him forever. We laughed. We cried. And then, the next two months of our lives were dedicated to raising the pups.

We wanted to have our beloved family and closest friends with us as we say "I do." To us, there's no greater place in the world than the mountains. So, we're planning a mountain wedding in the picturesque Estes Park, CO, at a beautiful, quaint venue. The venue and location truly embody who we are and how we want to celebrate with all of you, in the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains.