We’re getting married!

Both Daniel and Tori attended their undergraduate studies at the University of California, Merced. Tori was in her first year of studies and decided to step out of her comfort zone and make some new friends. Intervarsity Christian Fellowship was having an event on campus as part of "New Student Orientation" week and Tori decided to attend. Daniel had already been involved with Intervarsity, as he was a 3rd year student, and was one of the worship leaders (Drums) for Intervarsity's large group events. They met while playing a game of "capture the flag" in the dark with glow-sticks as the boundary lines. They were not on the same team but one day would become closer friends.

After attending many group events together at UC Merced and with Intervarsity Christian Fellowshship, Daniel and Tori were encouraged to send off the 2013 seniors at UCM's graduation ceremony in the Intervarsity cheering section. Tori had just moved in to her new off-campus home, "Mullin Girls", and Daniel was hanging out next door at "Mullin Boys". Their group of friends were discussing which cars they would take for the following day of festivities and Tori came over to see what everyone was doing. Daniel offered to have Tori ride in his car. Shortly after, they exchanged phone numbers. Later on that summer, they would begin texting more often...

The couple had been hanging out a lot over the past few months; watching movies, playing video games, making home-made pizza bagels, etc. Daniel asked Tori if she wanted to go to Yosemite, which she had never been before. Tori was unsuspecting of anything and even invited others to come along, which lucky for Daniel, they denied the invitation. At 5am they hiked up to the top of the trail and looked over at a beautiful waterfall as the sun was rising. Daniel asked Tori to be his girlfriend and they held hands on the way back down the mountain.

When Tori was little, her family would attend the San Diego County fair every year. This year, Tori made it a priority to attend, since she hasn't been in almost 10 years. Daniel knew he wanted to propose, and had the ring waiting on standby for the right moment. He knew he wanted to do it in San Diego with her family, so this was the perfect opportunity. As the sun was setting, they decided to leave the fair and go across the street to the Del Mar cliffs to watch the sunset. He hid the ring in a geode box to look like a rock and knelt down and pretended to pick up a rock. Then he popped the question! Her close friends and family were video taping and his family was watching on Facetime.