Amanda and I met through an app called OkCupid. The first things that I noticed about her was that she was cute, outdoorsy, and her obvious typographical error of her height being 5'11. I saw that as an opportunity to start a conversation, and that's how we started talking. I remember our first date being very casual and easy-going despite us being completely different. From then on, we talked every day and the rest is history.

It was the Dwyer family trip to The Grand Tetons (2019) when I asked for Amanda's hand in marriage. We were kayaking with the mountains right in front of us, and the view was just breathtaking. No better time, place, or situation to do it. Everyone started to drift away, and it was just me and her mom. I've been meaning to ask her parents' permission for a while now, and since we've already been dating for 4 years at that time, the timing was just perfect. With everyone far away, I asked for her mom's blessing. Luckily, I got it. Just one more to go. Hours later, the group broke off, and the opportunity to ask her dad opened up. Tim and Anne were alone sitting at the lobby. Amanda wasn't around, so I thought, "This is it!" I told Tim why I chose to do it this way, and how I've always felt welcome and part of their family since day one. After that, Tim and I shook hands, hugged, and got his blessing to marry his daughter.

Bautistas are known for being very cheesy. So, weddings, proposals, and grand gestures of affection are taken very seriously. I've always thought of proposing while serenading Amanda with my brothers in a form of a harana (Tagalog for serenade). It took about two years to plan. Multiple song changes, and secret band practices happened quite frequently. On our 5th anniversary (09/15/20), we went to Lassen National Park, with the (my) sole purpose of returning home as an engaged couple.

At the campground just before dinner, there was an opportunity when everyone was just sitting down and doing nothing. I then gave the signal to Francis to start playing Harana, a popular Filipino song about a guy serenading a girl with his friends to gain her affection. That was just the introduction though. It was to give everyone involved a heads up that the next song is "Dame Time" (our code word for the proposal). I proposed to Amanda while we were serenading her with Thomas Rhett's Die a Happy Man. Eventually, she said "Yes". After all this planning, I forgot one simple, yet very important detail... which hand the ring goes into!

Amanda and I are completely different people. She likes to read books; I like to watch movies / shows based on those books. She's a Harry Potter geek; I'm a Star Wars nerd. She's a FRIENDS girl, while I'm a HIMYM guy. She likes paddle boarding, whereas I enjoy any land-based sport there is. She enjoys a fine glass of wine, while I think it's just bitter gape juice. But sometimes, things just meet right in the middle. We're both foodies, we both love animals, and we're both very invested in Game of Thrones (yes we both agree as well that the ending sucked). And now, we're currently & happily binging old seasons of Survivor, Ted Lasso, Marvel Movies, and The Big Bang Theory. But no matter how different we are, somehow it works. Opposites do attract (2015, Koothrappali, R. PhD).