Shannon will tell you that there are "two answers" to how they met - initially they met through mutual friends at a birthday party (shoutout to Jay Searles and the Green Lake Bar & Grill) when Stefan showed up late, sat in front of Shannon, and told stories about a particularly rowdy party that, shall we say, caused Stefan to wake up in a different city than he had started in. Shannon thought "that guy seems fun" and a year later, they both swiped right. Stefan doesn't particularly remember this initial encounter, but he knows Shannon has too-good of a memory about stuff like this. In the dark ages of Tinder, you couldn't see mutual friends yet and they had to figure out the old fashioned way how they knew each other after Shannon kicked off the conversation with "I know you from somewhere!" Once they realized that their mutual friends were some of their favorite people, getting a drink seemed like an easy choice. Stefan chose a fancy cocktail bar called Intermezzo a block away from his condo in Pioneer Square, and eventually they spent the evening playing music and Cards Against Humanity with his four Airbnb guests who were sleeping in the living room. Neither was "looking for anything serious," so both were pretty surprised with the rapid progression from monthly to daily dates. Many many (many) parking tickets later, Stefan gave Shannon a garage door opener and a key, and Shannon gave Stefan tours of Pasco, Washington, as well as more instruments to put on their wall. He supported her through leaving Boys & Girls Club and moving to the tech industry, and she returned the favor as he spun up his consulting business, eventually bringing them down to Oakland, California. They still play music and Cards Against Humanity, drink a lot more water than they used to, and love each other more every day.

As singers together in Sharp Dressed Band, weddings were a frequent topic of conversation, making it easier to discuss what the other might want one day. Neither can remember the specific moment of "I'm going to marry this person," but the idea seemed to dawn on both of them during their second year playing with the band, and both will admit they "knew" for a while. S&S found their conversations had changed from "if" to "when", and Stefan had a very happy brunch at Boat Street Kitchen with Shannon's parents in December 2017 where he talked about "his intentions." About a month later, Stefan had started commuting down to the Bay Area Monday through Friday, traveling back to their Seattle home on weekends. A few months later, they were moving down and could barely plan for the following week, let alone a wedding. In November, S&S (and 28 of their best friends) left for their semi-annual #SailingClub trip, this time to Phuket, Thailand. Shannon's sister-in-law, Megan, texted her on the way asking if she thought "the question" was coming. The topic of rings and weddings hadn't come up in a little while, so she assumed "no" since--they talked about everything! On the last full day of the sailing trip, Shannon was so sure that Stefan hadn't been thinking about it, she asked if he wanted to go look at rings together in Hong Kong on their next stop of the trip. Little did she know he had picked one up in Ko Phi Phi a few days before and was planning to propose that evening. That night they were anchored off Ko Rang Yai, in the middle of colorful sunsets - the kind you can only get just before a big storm. The boat (aka ZTL) was taking lots of pictures together, enjoying their last evening at sea, and when it was time for the Captain and First Mate to take some pictures, they seemed to be taking longer than normal before he turned around and got down on one knee to ask her to hitch her wagon to his. Her response: "Yes, yep, definitely yes!" So now it is TIME. TO. PARTY!