This is a tale as old as time, starting way back in 2007, in the dark ages when BlackBerrys were in high demand and iPhones didn't exist. Gabe first saw Em as she entered the middle school band room and thought to himself, "wow, I should get to know her". He talked to her for the first time in 2009. The introduction took place on an 8th grade music trip, where, despite Em being in band and Gabe being in orchestra, they found that they actually had some things in common. In addition to sharing an interest in music, they had several mutual friends, the same Virgin Mobile cell phone (one of the cool ones that flipped open sideways for a full keyboard), they were the same height (and pretty much still are), and merely being on that trip meant that they shared in not being the most popular kids at school. The phones really created a jumping-off point, though, and once they exchanged numbers, hardly a day passed where they didn't talk.

Highschool at Chatfield was no different, and although they never had any classes together, Em and Gabe certainly saw each other more. Those who were once mutual friends were now just friends, and weekends were spent with everyone around campfires, watching movies, giving Gabe dreadlocks, and getting into whatever other shenanigans highschoolers got into in the early 2010s. As the years went on and they spent more time together, Gabe tried to keep his feelings close to his chest, which evidently worked a little too well, as Em started dating a couple of his friends. He was playing the long game, though, and when the time was right, he waited a little bit longer, and then he eventually asked her out. This may come as a surprise to those who are wondering why they waited 12 years to get married, but in that moment Em, in fact, said that she would rather remain friends. So, they did, albeit in an expectedly somewhat awkward sort of way.

Something in the water at CU Boulder has a way of smoothing those kinds of things out, though. It could be the vitamin D deficiency from Gabe's engineering school or the flow of "networking activities" in Em's business school, but either way, they still stayed in touch as much as their schedules would allow. In 2017, they both graduated and one of them even moved on to bigger and better things. Their lives completely diverged at this point, with Em actually starting to make money at Oracle and Gabe just continuing to spend money by staying in school, but they still managed to connect every once in a while. Gabe even convinced Em to join him and Will on a week-long trip to Tijuana for some light camping and house building.

Fast forward to early 2020 (the good couple of months) when Gabe was playing a gig in Denver, and Em came to watch. The timing could not have been better, since Em was single and Gabe was...still single. All it took was some liquid courage for Em to confide her newfound feelings for Gabe to his bandmate, Josh. Luckily, this was eventually relayed to an otherwise oblivious Gabe, and even more luckily, was done so before Denver completely shut down. In February of 2020, he took Em up on an invite to a bar downtown, where he remembered his first unsuccessful courting attempt and made a bold decision: he made Em ask him out this time. After some more liquid courage, she did, and they started dating with so much hope for a bright, not at all complicated future, right at the end of February 2020.

Despite the state of the world at the beginning of their relationship, Em and Gabe were able to make it work pretty seamlessly. Gabe was wrapping up graduate school and entering a non-existent work force and Em's weekly work travel came to an abrupt halt, so their schedules were all of a sudden very flexible and easily aligned. They spent as much of their free time together as they could. The four guys that Gabe lived with were always gracious and welcomed Em into their living space with open arms, so most of first two years of dating was spent there playing games and building lifelong friendships. If they weren't skiing, hiking, climbing, or camping, they were probably at a wedding somewhere. Otherwise, they were on the road to Montana, Wisconsin, Moab, Kansas, or Arkansas (technically also for a wedding).

Most importantly, they went on their first international trip together to Costa Rica, which worked out very nicely as a proposal venue for Gabe.

Congrats to those who haven't given up yet, you're almost there. By the time the wedding arrives, Gabe and Em will have been engaged for two years. Those two years have consisted some big moves from Golden to Wheat Ridge and Wheat Ridge back to Golden, slightly fewer weddings and significantly more baby showers, and another Master’s degree (don't worry, this time it's Em's). They visited Josh in Durango, trekked into several backcountry huts, got COVID in Wisconsin, E. coli in Mexico, and started a disease-free tradition of celebrating the 4th of July in Seattle with Gabe's sister.

It turns out, the long game paid off. After 18 years in the making, they also found time to put together a wedding and can't wait to celebrate with all of you!