Meghan and Chris met for the first time on the 4th of July in 2016 when mutual friends were getting together to celebrate in Newport Beach. At the time, Meghan was a fresh transplant to Los Angeles working in finance and Chris was living in San Francisco diving into tech sales. Five years came and went, and their paths crossed again on the beach in Hermosa in spring of 2021. Chris immediately took notice of Meghan and asked their mutual friend, Megan Griffin, if Meghan was single and to put in a good word for him. Meghan, on the other hand, was excited to hear that Chris had moved to Hermosa because it meant she had another potential friend in the area. Chris, Meghan, and her friend, Amanda, grabbed a beer the next day. On the way home, Amanda asked Meghan if she had any interest in Chris. Meghan responded that Chris was “friend material,” a clear sign that Chris had his work cut out for him! Fast-forward two weeks - Chris was at the airport with his friend, Trevor, waiting for their flight to Cabo for Allie and Weston Nielsen’s wedding. Three pushed flights ultimately turned into a full cancellation, by which point Trevor and Chris had run up a bar tab into the low-hundreds of dollars. Given their investment of time and money, the only choice was to double down and carry their momentum out to the bars in Hermosa. Neglecting to acknowledge that it was not, in fact, the weekend for everyone else (and with most of their friends already down in Cabo), Chris and Trevor looked to rally a Wednesday night crew. Chris’s first thought was to message Meghan to see if she and any of her friends wanted to join them. By chance, Meghan was already planning to go out that night for her roommate Katie's birthday, and they decided to convene at the local watering hole, Tower 12. After a few drinks and with the clock quickly approaching midnight, Meghan asked Chris to come up to the bar to order a round of birthday tequila shots. As Meghan turned around to ask how many she should order, Chris finally mustered up enough (liquid) courage to blurt out a direct (and entirely out-of-context) “I think you’re so pretty” and went in for a kiss.

The following week Chris took Meghan on their first date where a planned 45-minute drinks turned into 3 hours of dinner, effortless conversation, and laughs. Meghan called her sister, Christa, the next day to share that she may have just gone on her last first date. After quickly becoming inseparable, Chris took Meghan home to Yorba Linda to meet his Mom and Dad, and Meghan invited Chris on her family’s annual trip to their house in Rosemary Beach to meet her family. While Meghan’s first time meeting Chris’s family went off without a hitch (or at least meeting his Mom and Dad...her eventful meeting of Chris’s sister and brother-in-law, Lindsey and Brent, is reserved for family folklore), things very much went off with a hitch on Chris's first Rosemary trip as Meghan and Chris got stranded in the Atlanta airport overnight. They hobbled into Rosemary droopy-eyed and exhausted, but the Moreland’s welcoming and light-hearted demeanor immediately made everything better. Chris felt right at home and quickly understood what made Meghan, Meghan. Chris told Meghan he loved her for the first time the next morning. Since then, Meghan and Chris’s relationship has grown over their shared love of beach days, sunset wine & cheese, traveling (taking trips to Rosemary Beach, San Francisco, Tahoe, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, NYC, Dallas, Austin, and Tahiti), diner breakfasts, music, martinis, all things chocolate peanut butter, and their daily walks with Callie girl.

Chris and Meghan's time together has only reinforced that they are each other’s match, and on May 12, 2023, Chris made things official by proposing on the beach in front of their apartment in Manhattan Beach. We're very excited to continue our story with you all as we get married in Rosemary Beach - a place that represents countless memories for the Moreland family and one that will continue to be a special place for us and the future Hartig family!