It all started with a beer (in the midst of covid).

Matt had invited me to take our puppies to the dog park. I had worked the night shift the night before, and rolled out of bed and into Matt's truck, red solo cup in hand (with iced coffee of course), to head to the dog park Matt was always raving about at work. We got to the dog park, and Matt filled 2 water bottles full of beer to take down to the dog park with us. Puppies and beer in tow, we headed to the park.

After the park, we met up with multiple coworkers at the only brewery I was familiar with that had just recently opened in Seattle- Lagunitas (shout out to Marin!). We hung out, drank (too much) beer, and got to know each other.

We repeated the outing a week or so later, and opted for lunch after the dog park by ourselves. I considered this our first unofficial date. :) Months later did I find out Matt had considered our very first dog park date 'our first date' -oops, sorry Matt!

This became our go-to outing, given that Seattle had completely shut down and there was no longer much to do in the city. We spent the summer getting to know each other, spending almost every day together (since we also worked together), and quickly fell in love (even wearing our yellow gowns, respirators, and goggles into covid rooms together).

A year later, we moved to Bend, OR to get out of the city, and do something new, both with our lives and our careers. We finally were able to get the dogs a yard, and enjoy almost 365 days of sunshine, even in 4 degree weather.

We were blessed to travel to MANY places for multiple weddings of our some our favorite people in 2022, and continued to grow together.

2023, we went to Hawaii with some of my family, and closest family friends, and Matt asked me to marry him. In such shock, my initial response was, "Are you serious??!" Thankfully, he was, and we have enjoyed planning our dream wedding together!

I knew early on I wanted to marry Matt, and can't wait for the day I finally get to!

We look forward to celebrating with all of you, and can't wait for May 25, 2024! See you all soon!!!

Our story

I was at work one day when I first saw Emma. I was speechless. I couldn’t believe how beautiful she was. Waaaaay out of my league. I’ve never seen full COVID gear look so good.
After some encouragement from from two of our best friends (Marie and Jereme) I decided what the heck? You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Still a little nervous, I decided to ask if she wanted to go to the dog park. We both had puppies at the time and needed to get them out for some exercise. Plus, COVID had shut just about everything down in Seattle at that point with no end in sight. I offered to pick Emma up and met her outside of her apartment building. She showed up with a red solo cup of coffee in one hand, Parker in the other. I was sold. We hit the park for a couple of hours and had a blast. Dixie and Parker were getting along great and I taught Parker how to swim. I figured there was no way she’d say no to grabbing a beer now (we did take a couple with us to the park). So I asked, she said yes and we went to the only open place in what felt like the entire state of WA. Lagunitas, a brewery with an outside patio that we could take the dogs to. A couple of our friends met us there (so as not to make it weird, we barely knew each other and I wanted to make sure the conversation never stalled or got awkward). We had such a great time i figured I’d try for a second date. I asked, she said yes and we did the same thing this time without the friends. It was even better. We kept going out, or staying in playing cards, Parker and Dixie were inseparable and I couldn’t believe how lucky I was. I had just hit the jackpot. We spent the COVID years together, I mean like every waking moment. We worked together and spent pretty much every waking moment together. I was shocked, we never got tired of each other. We decided it was time to get out of Seattle and didn’t have any specific place in mind, so we decided to try out Bend, OR. We got jobs, found a house with a yard for the pups and moved. We grew together, traveled together, and built a life together. I decided it was time to lock it down, or at least try to. So on a beautiful, very long drive in Hawaii I finally got up the courage to ask. Once again, I was speechless. I had a pretty good idea that she would say yes but I still couldn’t believe my luck. I could barely blurt out the words but I finally blurted out ‘Will you marry me?’ While trying not to topple over as there were some very sharp rocks conveniently placed under my knee. She said yes! (Well she said ‘ARE YOU SERIOUS?!!?!’ and then said yes). So now we are planning a wedding and can’t wait to see you all there. It’s going to be one hell of a night. There’s a very good chance the only words I’ll be able to blurt out are I Do. Im still speechless.