After a year of board game nights, movie dates, escape rooms, rock climbing, & frozen yogurt, David asked Vicky to be his girlfriend (and they made it Facebook Official. Ahh, the olden days). She loved his heroic level of chill along with his keen sense of fun, and he liked her silly humor and sense of wonder. Over the next year, weekend trips to Santa Cruz, Tahoe, & LA brought them closer together. David pursued the start-up life at RelateIQ in Silicon Valley and Vicky commuted up and down the coast, tutoring one day and leading whale-watching tours the next. Vicky tested David’s spirit of exploration with a two-week trip to South Africa, where they drove across the Cape checking out whales, lions, meerkats, & more (he proved to be an avid glamping enthusiast). In 2017, Vicky relocated for the UC Santa Cruz science journalism program, and David’s remote work at Zapier allowed him to move with her. While she wrote her first newspaper articles, interviewing squid fishermen and nuclear scientists, he helped automate the internet. After she graduated, they moved together to Washington, DC for a year of breaking news at PBS NewsHour, free museums, and definitely no heisting of the Declaration of Independence. (We didn’t even think about it, we promise.) Vicky rediscovered how magical fireflies are, and David enjoyed all four seasons, sequentially. But adventure called. In 2019, they said goodbye to most of their possessions and their access to full-time running water to move into a converted van. They set out to spend a year road-tripping across the country, visiting friends and family, exploring national parks, & getting to know each other just about as intimately as any two people can. Vicky found an unexpected romance in sharing a composting toilet, riding out thunderstorms and sweltering nights in Florida, & showering in public gyms. But even better was discovering new views of well-trodden cities, cuddling up in lonely campgrounds, & frying up grilled cheese sandwiches on the shoulders of back-country roads. Together, they felt like they could face anything. That made it easy for Vicky to say “yes, of course!” when David proposed in front of the cathedral-esque walls of glass and glowing, golden kelp at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He had roped in dear friends and family members to make it a moment to cherish (and admire, photographically speaking) forever. Had the oncoming pandemic not spoiled the fun, the newly engaged pair would have continued gleefully spinning their wheels. Instead, in March of 2020 they moved back in with Vicky’s parents and siblings in San Mateo, California, where they sheltered-in-place and shared meals, bathrooms, & movie marathons. David cheerfully dove into cataloging the household DVD collection and created calendars to organize weekly dinner plans. For Vicky, nothing is more important than her family, and she was so grateful to make David a part of it. But the pandemic dragged on, and gathering all their favorite people from around the country to a wedding seemed like a very bad idea. Vicky and David got tired of waiting around to make their marriage official. After an extended visit with David’s family in Houston, they headed back to California in their trusty Subaru Outback. And along the way, they made their union legally binding in a (extremely) small ceremony at a strip mall kiosk in Las Vegas (we didn't even invite Elvis!). Newly bound into a singular tax unit, they bought a house near Vicky’s family in San Mateo. They spent the rest of 2021 settling into David’s new job at Stripe and Vicky’s jumbled-up schedule of freelancing, volunteering, & art. 2022 went much the same way, although local hikes and tidepool excursions eventually gave way to hosting the Burrow at their new home, and longer trips to Washington, Michigan and Texas. Just a short few years and an interminable pandemic later, they’re thrilled to invite you to finally celebrate their relationship in style!