Josh and Maria met while working at Mcmenamins on the Columbia in Vancouver WA. A year and a half of slinging beers and tots led to little jokes and cute whispers on sidebar.

Early in July 2021 Maria and Josh finally spent time together outside of work. They quickly bonded over their shared sense of humor and hobbies. From that point on, Maria and Josh were pretty much inseparable. They spent the summer flirting at work, hiking, hammock-ing and taking impromptu day trips to Cannon beach. It was pretty obvious how smitten they were to everyone except them. (Shoutout to Kathryn, a mcmens co-worker who helped both of them realize what was right in front of them<3)

The thing is, Maria had plans to move to Colorado Springs in September. When Maria moved, they decided to chalk this epic summer up as just a legendary friendship.

But boy does distance make the heart grow fonder! Both of them could not stop thinking about each other and wondering what would happen if we weren’t states apart. After a mere 3 weeks, Josh came to visit and it took all of 48 hours before Maria went on a 15 minute ramble that went a little something like “Hey sooo uhhhh, I’m quite really in love with you” to which Josh replied a sweet and simple “I love you too.” They started officially dating that weekend. During this visit, Josh stayed with Maria’s roommate, Emilys boyfriend, Amos. Josh and Amos hit it off so well they made plans to live together the upcoming January. Daily FaceTime calls and a couple impromptu visits made the 3ish months of long distance fly by. After a treacherous move from Washington to Colorado 2 days after Christmas, Josh was finally in Colorado with Maria. Josh and Amos moved into the apartment directly across from Maria and Emily. It was epic. The two couples shared lots of meals, played lots of jack box, and got to watch each other fall deeper in love. In March of 2022, Josh and Maria had the honor and privilege of helping Amos propose to Emily! This got Josh and Maria thinking about love and marriage and the long term.

On Saturday January 21st, Josh told Maria to get ready to hangout with some work friends. As they were heading out for a night on the town Josh pulled into their old apartments telling Maria that he had accidentally sent a package there by mistake. He had Maria open her old mail box to find a small box sitting there, inside was the ring. After a sappy speech and Maria BAWLING, friends jumped out from behind and surprised her in this happy moment. Josh and Maria then went to dinner and back to her house where all of their people were waiting to surprise her. They partied the night away.

Josh is currently an electrical apprentice in Woodland park, about 20 mins east of Colorado Springs. He is also going to school to earn his electrical Journeyman license. Maria is currently in her second year at a middle school in the Springs teaching 8th grade math. They both love their jobs. When they aren’t working, the couple is often hanging with buddies, and exploring Colorado.