Our story started like most modern day romances…on social media. It was Summer 2013 and Brandon was home in Temecula from UC Davis Law School. Most of Brandon’s close friends had moved out of Southern California so he reached out to Alysha, who was still in Riverside, via Facebook Messenger. Thank goodness they did not “unfriend” each other after they graduated UC Riverside in 2010! Brandon’s funny sports & political quips and Alysha’s movies reviews both proved worthy of a continued follow. After talking for a few days (mainly about movies), they realized they both passed each others little tests: Alysha liked the film Spring Breakers, Brandon liked scary movies, and they both liked the movie Brick. Therefore, they decided to meet up and watch an indie movie, The East, together in theaters. Sure enough, they both enjoyed the movie and chatted for hours afterwards. That summer they went on numerous day dates in LA to watch double features at the ArcLight Cinemas, eat Bludso's BBQ, and go sightseeing at the Griffith Observatory, The Getty Center or other locations. After Brandon finished law school and passed the California Bar Exam in 2014, they got more serious about each other. Then in 2015, Brandon got his first job as an attorney in Irvine, CA and moved to Fountain Valley while Alysha was still working and living in Riverside. For two years, they dated Southern California long distance - meaning they had to fight the 91 freeway each time they wanted to see each other. However, this gave them a good excuse to see tons of Angels baseball games during the week (since it was kind of in the middle)! In 2017, Brandon and Alysha moved into an apartment together and chose Anaheim Hills as a convenient middle point for their commutes. However, they grew to love their chosen city. They realized nearby Irvine and Santa Ana had good independent theater options, discovered delicious local BBQ and pizza restaurants, met great neighbors, and built new friendships. Plus, it didn’t hurt that during the pandemic they got into making tiki drinks and, sure enough, there are a lot of tiki bars around Orange County. ;-) When it came time to buy their first house in 2021, they moved exactly 1 mile away from their apartment! Now Brandon and Alysha (& Tilly) are enjoying their new home, slowly making improvements and upgrades, and working on building their own tiki bar!

Brandon always wanted a surprise engagement. After surreptitiously shopping, buying and accepting delivery of the engagement ring, Brandon needed the proposal to be a surprise as well. Brandon and Alysha began dating with day trips to Los Angeles. Whether it was going to watch movies at the ArcLight Theater in Hollywood, sight seeing at the Griffith Observatory, or hunting for the best BBQ, LA is where all their initial memories formed as a couple. Brandon mulled over numerous options for a beautiful and meaningful proposal site - the Getty Center, the Griffith Observatory… but his mind always returned to the ArcLight, where they saw countless movies and shared their first kiss. Unfortunately, the ArcLight was one of the many theaters that did not survive the pandemic. With no new movies playing, there was no specific reason for Brandon and Alysha to go there. As such, a pretext was needed to get Alysha out to LA and it needed to be an important one since Alysha was planning to pack before her trip to Minnesota. Brandon was lamenting this dilemma on a call with his boss and she immediately had a great idea: Brandon’s firm was in the process of moving their LA office so Brandon could tell Alysha he needed to sign some documents with the leasing company on Saturday. Brandon broke the news that they had to go to LA over the weekend to sign paperwork, however, thoughtful as always, Brandon encouraged Alysha by saying they would make a fun day of it. Then, Friday afternoon, Brandon told Alysha that the leasing company had just canceled on him, but since they already had dinner reservations at their favorite Italian restaurant, Rao’s, they should still go and enjoy LA as a couple before her trip to the North Star State. After having a cocktail at one of their favorite tiki bars, Tiki Ti on Sunset, and before dinner at Rao’s in Hollywood, Brandon suggested that they kill time by taking pictures atop the parking structure of the old ArcLight, which offers gorgeous views of downtown LA…for old time’s sake. As they were driving up the ArcLight parking structure en route to the roof, they noticed traffic cones preventing vehicle access to the roof. Panicked, Brandon started doing LA traffic math in his head -- could he race them up to Griffith Observatory, propose, take pictures, and still make it to dinner in time? Would this gambit set off alarm bells? Was this temporally possible? Luckily, while Brandon was panicking, Alysha calmly noted that even though vehicles could not drive to the roof, they could still climb the stairs to the roof. Relieved, Brandon grabbed his always handy camera tripod from his golf bag, and they took the stairs to the roof. Brandon set up the camera and directed Alysha to stand with downtown LA in the background. He pretended to put the camera on a 10 second photo timer, but instead started recording a video. Brandon approached Alysha, dropped to one knee and asked her if she would marry him. Brandon’s surprise scheming worked too well and a stunned Alysha replied, “Are you serious?!” To which his lawyer-brain had to confirm, “Is that a yes?” It was.