Like in all the best stories, our characters start out in California. Growing up only a few hours apart they are completely unaware that across the entire world, their life partner was right in their own backyard, only an area code away.

Fast forward a few dozen years, a few hundred experiences, and many thousands of miles traveled across the world, and our two West-Coasters find their separate stories leading them into the Congressional-Representative-less District of Columbia. There, in a small Northwest neighborhood, in a row-house rented by six people, the newly arrived, always smiling Alexandra meets up with one of the renters, her high school friend Christina. One of the five other renters was the sleep deprived, basement dwelling Ryan. After that first chance meeting, it only took a mere 5 years for them to come together as a couple.

In the interim is your classic romance story: Girl meets boy, boy meets girl, but boy works impossibly long hours for the Secret Service at the White House past 1am, and girl travels to Niger for months at a time. All resulting in missed opportunities and imperfect moments, preventing them from turning their strong connection into something more.

Yet, despite the craziness that comes with two people committed to careers that fling them across the world and to missions that are bigger than self, Alexandra and Ryan do come together. Taking on the challenges of life together as partners would be their next, big, shared adventure.

In October of 2020, catching personal light in an otherwise dark year for the world, Ryan and Alexandra made their way up to Maine and hiked up a mountain in Acadia National Park. At the top of this mountain, looking out across a gorgeous landscape, the two agreed to make the partnership permanent. While Alexandra’s answer of “duh” to Ryan's proposal might have been due to Ryan strategically positioning her between himself and a mountain's edge, once the immediate danger had passed she didn’t retract her answer.

Since then, Alexandra and Ryan have begun writing the next chapters of their lives together: raising manner-less kittens, celebrating holidays, sharing laughs, love, and memories under one roof of a shared row-house similar to the one they met in (though, now minus the 5 extra roommates).

Now we invite all of you, our friends, our family, and our loved ones - the wonderful supporting characters that fill our lives with joy - to join us in celebrating our wedding and this next phase of our partnership!

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