In 5th grade, I met Nicole in Ms. Johnson’s class. I remember thinking her hair looked like a lion’s mane. Throughout middle school, high school, and college we stayed connected through mutual friends. During those years, I had a couple crushes on Nicole, but knew she wasn’t interested. I remember one time being told “Wait for the right time, if it’s meant to be it will happen”. Little did I know my opportunity was going to come….even if it was A LOT later than I expected. At a mutual friend’s wedding in Portland, the golden opportunity finally came. Nicole saved a seat fot me at the reception, found ourselves hitting it off, and both were single. I remember thinking how beautiful she looked in her black dress. I must have looked pretty good too, since she asked if I wanted to dance. My opportunity had finally arrived! From that point on I was hooked and knew she needed to know how I felt. The only problem, she lived in Phoenix and I lived in San Diego. I quickly made an excuse to go to Phoenix, Nicole then made her own reason to come to San Diego, and would switch off as often as we could. Somewhere in the beginning of those trips, I drove out there to ask her to be my girlfriend. After almost a year of long distance, she followed a job opportunity to move to San Diego. From that point on, the rest is history!

Nicole and I had been dating for two and a half years, and I knew she was the one for me….the problem? My girl had no idea what kind of ring she wanted. We went ring shopping together and we were able to find a ring. My dilemma now was figuring out how to surprise her, since she knew I had picked a ring. Luckily Nicole’s friend Brecken (and Matron of Honor) was game to help. With her assistance, I was able to trick Nicole into thinking she had planned a night of hanging out with friends to watch the sunset at Sunset Cliffs. What Nicole didn’t know was that I had planned the entire event which ended with me proposing. When the time came, I slipped the code word “pickles” into conversation for Brecken to suggest couple photos. Under that guise, I was able to drop on one knee during an awesome sunset with close friends and family.

Trevor and I had the urge to get hitched shortly after our engagement. We made last minute plans to get married at the courthouse with both of our parents. It was a very special and intimate day that still sometimes feels like a dream. I am so grateful that dream is reality, because our original wedding plans were flipped upside-down like most everyone's 2020's plans. Back in March, we made the difficult decision of postponing our May 30, 2020 wedding to February of 2021 (which felt like so far away at the time!) Despite not having a big wedding, we were showered with support from all around. We are so thankful for all of our friends and family who supported us during this pandemic that has crashed our first year of marriage. We are also so excited to celebrate in person and virtually with all of you February 20, 2021, can't wait to see you there!