The story of "Los Jefes" (as they call each other) starts in college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where we met through Best Man Dan Gelfer, who was in the same dorm as Ashley. Ashley and Ethan's second date was a weekend in Las Vegas as a part of his AEPi fraternity 2014 formal. Ethan made sure to have a casual first date of frozen yogurt by the creek in downtown SLO.

The school year following the formal, they began dating exclusively. They continued the honeymoon phase of the relationship until its first real test, Ashley's 6-month, work abroad program in Chandigarh, India. They both mutually decided it would be difficult to maintain the fresh relationship over such a distance, but they kept in touch and as her time to return neared, they both knew they belonged together again.

Around the time Ethan graduated with his master's degree, they took their first vacation together by going to Italy, France and Spain in December 2016. This trip was exceptional, and sparked their love of travel in the years to come.

Ethan moved to San Francisco after accepting a job at an engineering consulting firm, while Ashley remained in SLO to finish out her degree. This shorter-but-still-long distance became the norm for them for the next few years, as Ashley landed a job in her hometown of Sacramento and lived at home to start her career. They still visited each other most weekends, but this setup was not ideal and began to wear on them.

The immediate solution was to take trips, including Ethan's first Kluball family reunion in Tomahawk, Wisconsin in Summer 2018. Both Ashley's maternal grandparents grew up in the town, which flushes full of travelers for the July 4th weekend, the majority of whom are related to Ashley in some fashion. Ethan got along great with the hoards of cousins and was accepted into the family despite not yet being married. He would go on to attend another reunion three years later and is scheduled to attend the reunion this year.

At long last, Ashley ditched her first job and was able to find an Eletrical Engineering building design role in San Francisco. She moved in with Ethan and his roommates in the Mission district at the end of 2018.

Their experience during COVID was, probably not uniquely, fraught with difficulties, including sharing a SF-sized room with a SF-sized closet. But, at the end of the day it allowed them to renew their commitment to each other.

Come that winter, Ashley did as she normally does and ruthlessly sought powder to snowboard. It was at this point that she convinced Ethan to ditch his seldom used snowboard and try skiing. Ethan picked up skiing quickly following three lessons at Sierra-at-Tahoe and made his way up to a black diamond by the 2022-2023 ski season. It's been a big part of his life ever since, including two trips to the alps and two to the rockies to shred since then.

Their next milestone was getting an apartment all to their own. This was no small feat in San Francisco, and it happened coincidentally with their roommate finding a housing option he wanted to move to right before they were able to bring it up. They began their life in their own home July 2023 and never looked back. And they never had to share a desk when working from home again!

Later that year, they took their first of two trips to ski in Europe, specifically Switzerland. They chose Switzerland because Groomsman Hunter Finley was living there at the time and because the Matterhorn seemed pretty sweet. Upon arrival to Hunter's apartment in the mountains, they realized the first ski resort they wanted to visit was not open yet. After some quick research, Ashley found a local mountain, Glacier 3000, they could explore that was not too far of a train ride away. This was a perfect opportunity for Ethan to execute his proposal, which he was planning to do at some point while in Switzerland. Once they got up the gondola to the scenic overlook, he quickly ushered them away from the tourist and ski team groups to take a photo with the valley and ski lift behind them. After a few pics, he got on one knee to close the deal. Ashley was so surprised, she initially thought he was tying his shoes. He didn't even have laces!

Q + A

Will there be shuttles back to the hotels?