Our story begins with a simple swipe on the phone, little did we know that this one simple action was actually us saying “yes” to the rest of our lives together. Like many couples that began dating during COVID, we met on a dating app. After ‘matching’ and a couple weeks of messaging each other, we decided to meet for a first date.

Our first date was at a dog-friendly spot, so that Anna’s puppy Sawyer could join us for jazz night. After getting our table and settling the first date nerves, our conversation began to flow. Soon we were no longer just talking about the basic ‘where we are from’ or ‘what we do for work’, but instead started talking about life, family, aspirations, and lessons we have learned over the years. Soon the evening didn’t feel like a first date at all, but rather had the comfortability and vulnerability of two old friends catching up with each other. The evening seemed to fly by as we began to unravel and learn more and more about each other. Fun fact, this is when we both realized we have a mutual hate for tomatoes (Zack was fully prepared to eat the tomatoes on his sandwich so he wouldn’t look picky in front of Anna).

The date was going smoothly when Anna got up to go get some water and tied Sawyer’s leash to her stool. Sawyer looked up a moment later to realize Anna was now across the patio and took off running after her, dragging and banging the stool as he went. Luckily the band was playing loud that night, so only half of the audience looked our way at what was causing all the commotion. The rest of the night went great and we decided to meet up again, which would be easy enough as half-way through the evening we realized that we only lived 3 blocks away from each other.

The next couple dates went well and shortly after, the typical once a week planned date night, turned into spending most of our days together. Living so close to each other, it was a rarity for a day to pass by where we didn’t see each other. From dinners at home, to scary movies, to downtown concerts and late-night talks about what we envision our future to look like and what we were looking for in a partner. As we continued to spend more time together, we both quickly realized that all the things we wanted for our future, we found in each other.

After a couple years of dating and us only growing closer and more in love. Zack proposed to Anna on one of her favorite hikes, Hamilton Mountain, while visiting her cousins in Portland. Thankfully her cousin Peter was in on the proposal and able to capture the moment as Anna and Zack walked on to a wooden bridge and crossed over to the other side an engaged couple (and for those wondering yes, he brought tissues.) Now life has been great planning our wedding and envisioning all of you there on our special day. We are both so thankful to have you all in our lives and can’t wait to celebrate with you all soon.

With all our love,

Anna and Zack