We're so excited to celebrate with you in Vail, CO!

Darren & Kate met in rare fashion for Austin 2014 - in person, unintroduced. Well, perhaps not entirely. Here's the story: It's Sunday, July 20th, and Darren is waking up in Houston after a successful night of work at the Dynamo game. Everything went well with the system, the client was happy, the weather is gorgeous. It was setting up to be an amazing Sunday Funday. Before the drive back to Austin, Darren texts his buddies to ask not if there are pool plans, but where there are pool plans. One friend replies saying his company has access to a reservation-only event at the W Austin and he can get his hands on an extra ticket. Plans set: W pool it is. At around the same time, Kate finds out she can use her sister's pool pass for two, and Kate needed exactly no time flat to decide who to call. A legendary Katchel day was in the making. Pool time: Darren finds his buddy at the cabana his company had, promptly orders a $7 lightly-chilled Modelo and hops into the lukewarm pool. If the pool wasn't at capacity, it was certainly pushing the limit. People everywhere, a dozen beachballs in the air and a DJ at the opposite end keeping it groovy, it was quintessential Austin Sunday Funday. To his right, he noticed two women who look to be about his age shoot down a pick-up attempt in less than 2 minutes - an iced bottle of champagne and a set of flatbill gym bros crashed and burned hard and fast. Knowing what he knows now about Kate & Rachel, this was par for the course. But seeing it happen so quickly in such a setting grabbed his attention. What did those guys say? Were they just way off the mark or are those two ladies just really tough shells to crack? Darren had to find out for himself. He waded over to "grab a beachball".

Darren grabbed the beach ball floating nearest the two ladies on towels needing an icebreaker to avoid the same fate as the Champagne Bros. With both of their sets of eyes hidden behind Ray Ban Aviators, Darren didn't know if they could see him or not, but he did know one thing: they both like Ray Bans. Icebreaker determined: sunglasses. With his own shades on, he picked the best topic of discussion around sunglasses he could think of in the sweltering heat: Rachel's Ice Blue lenses. See, Darren's favorite color for just about his entire life has been blue. The bright blue lenses were the most noticeable trait of the two pair. Kate's glasses were brown. He didn't know how to compliment a brown set of sunglasses, so he stayed with what he knew: blue. "I really like your blue sunglasses," he said to Rachel as he grabbed the beach ball and spun it between his two middle fingers. Without missing a beat, and almost like it was scripted, Rachel replies, " Thanks, my boyfriend bought them for me. This is my friend Kate." Kate. The one he had his eye on the whole time and the one who caught his attention first with her blonde hair and rainbow-colored bikini bottom. He didn't even ask Blue Ray Ban girl her name after the introduction; he now knew Kate's name and that was all it took. He would of course come to find out her name is Rachel, and her boyfriend - the one with such good taste in sunglasses - was Adam, Darren & Kate's officiant. Coincidentally, Adam met Kate and Rachel at the same time, too - Spring Break 2011. In fact, he met them in the same attire as Darren did - swimsuits. The universe sure knows what it's doing. Anyway, back to the story. After a few minutes of back and forth, Kate told Darren she was from Dallas and Darren guessed Kate's area code - 214. She was so impressed, she gave him the next 7 digits without him having to guess. He knew what to do with those.

Kate would entertain Darren a little while longer before signaling to Rachel it was time to go. As they walked away, Darren had already begun mentally drafting the first text to Kate. He bounced around the pool for another hour or two with a couple more Modelos before heading home for the night, sunkissed and starving. "You know who else is probably hungry?" he thought to himself. "Kate." As luck would have it, she needed to eat that night as well. She accepted his invitation for a gourmet pre-made frozen skillet dinner, and she didn't turn down a goodnight kiss when she left. It was over that dinner visit that Kate would meet Bailey, Darren would learn of Gustavo - the apple of Kate's eye - and the spark we both felt would ignite a love story that brings us all together to celebrate this August in Colorado.