Who would have thought that our life together and our beautiful family would have started from a Craigslist ad and a shady motel, but it did. When I first arrived in the San Francisco area at the age of 19, I had nowhere to go with so few belongings that they could fit in my two-door hatchback Acura Integra. It was past midnight and the hotel I had booked turned me away after realizing my age was below their requirement for the booking. I was referred to the aforementioned shady motel which gladly took me in, where, out of pure laziness, I continued to live for the next 6 months.

It was during this time that I met Jeneva, the girl I would later be marrying. I had no connections in the Bay and work prevented me from making many, so I turned to Craigslist of all places. It was there in the Strictly Platonic section where I would read the profound words that would change my life: Looking for a friend of the male persuasion. “Hey, I meet those qualifications”, I thought, and quickly responded hoping she’d overlook the fact I was a vagabond living in a motel. We messaged each other daily for several weeks before we finally met for the first time at the Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon Bay - an annual event that has marked our anniversary ever since.

We couldn’t have been any more different people. I was a polo-over-long-sleeve-wearing Mormon boy from Utah, and she was a goth-punk-fishnets-wearing Catholic Bay Area native. Having come from such different worlds our early relationship, needless to say, was a bit rocky. Yet somehow we were inseparable and resilient. They say opposites attract, and our magnetic bond shaped us into the pair we are today.

We’ve never done things the “right way”, let alone in the right order. Seventeen years on, we now share a family together, with two beautiful daughters, two dogs, a cat, a couple of lizards, and a judgemental fish - and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Marriage is often the start of a new chapter, but for us, it’s a confirmation of the one we’ve already begun and a celebration of what we’ve built along the way.

-Dan

In my defense, I really wasn’t looking for love. But I found it anyway.

After chatting daily via AIM (this was 2008 so AIM was still a thing), I grew weary of waiting for Dan to ask me to hang out. I asked him if he liked pumpkins. He said yes. So I suggested we meet up at the Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon Bay on Saturday, October 18. He loved Half Moon Bay, so it was an easy sell.

Our first hour together was a little quiet, but I wasn’t bored. After the festival we went to a nearby playground for a change of venue. That’s where we really started talking. Before long it was night, but we still wanted to talk, so we went to Denny’s in Linda Mar for some hot chocolate. Soon it was midnight and we still weren’t done talking and laughing. We decided to go somewhere else, so we went to the Pacifica Pier. We spent two more hours talking and laughing. By the time Dan took me home I knew I was in trouble. He knew it too when he texted me less than an hour later saying I left quite a lasting impression on him.

It’s so cliche to say, but by the time we parted early the next morning, I knew he was the man I was going to marry. Dan’s faith in that premonition wavered from time to time, and it may have taken a lot longer to get to this point than I had anticipated, but I can now safely say to Dan, “I told you so!”

-Jeneva