While visiting home (San Diego, CA) in May 2023, Heather’s childhood friend, Arlyn, insisted she go on a date with Arlyn’s boyfriend’s coworker. Within a matter of minutes, Jaime had texted Heather. The list of selling points for Jaime were as follows: good looking (super true), great benefits & retirement (he’s a firefighter, so, true again), and super friendly (true for anyone who knows him outside of work). So Heather texted back fairly quickly.

After a 5-hour first date, Heather immediately reported back to her friend that Jaime was “seriously so adorable” and “so funny” (also still true). The only downside to meeting Jaime? It was one day before Heather was headed back to Cincinnati for a new job she had just accepted. She hoped they would stay in touch as she was planning to be back in town in August but figured the world’s best looking firefighter (self-proclaimed but proven to also be a true statement) wouldn’t stay on the market for long. However, after two months of consistent weekly phone calls and facetimes that lasted 3-4 hours each, Heather couldn’t believe that Jaime was traveling all the way to Cincinnati just to check out a Seinfeld themed Airbnb (Heather, could you be any more naive?!). The two picked up like they had known each other for years.

After spending more time together, Heather admitted that she’d be cool with spending the rest of her life with Jaime (way to play it cool!). After lots of fun trips (Oregon, Arizona, Cincinnati, San Diego), puzzles, desserts, and laughs we knew there was no way it could get any better. By December, the two were discussing preferences in engagement rings. And for those of you who know Jaime, he does not like to waste any time. By January, he had picked the perfect ring (no seriously, look at the pics if you haven’t seen it already and try to keep your jaw from dropping).

After asking Mike (aka Hangdad) for Heather’s hand in marriage over In-N-Out burger (smartest move ever), Jaime was ready to pop the big question when she came into town in April. Heather swore this trip was the only trip he wouldn’t propose since she had to change the dates last minute. Safe to say she was totally surprised and completely over the moon to say “yes”!

The next day, a million wedding-planning thoughts started going through Heather’s head. Most importantly, ‘how soon can we plan this thing so we can start a family?!’ We had always joked that our baby, more specifically our daughter, wanted to be at our wedding since she would like cake (with dessert-obsessed parents, how could she not?). Turns out, two days after the engagement, our very specific daydream of our daughter joining us for wedding cake on the big day became a reality!

Heather couldn’t wait to take the Mendoza last name and the two were wed in a private ceremony in June (Heather would argue she still had to wait too long to legally call Jaime her husband). However, we wanted to make sure we still got to celebrate with all our favorite people!

We are so excited that this “Our Story” page simply maps out the beginning of our forever.

H&J