The Octopus

It all started the summer of 2015 in San Francisco. Juan was the former-bus driver, clarinetist, and line cook, and now an HR consultant. Lizzie was the sustainable building engineer who escaped the city to ski and rock climb. While some theories suggest the two ran into each other at prior events, the first memorable encounter was at a house party at 1042 Divisadero, where some mutual friends lived. Lizzie had found an octopus hand puppet lying in the living room and proceeded to amuse (annoy?) everyone with her newfound knickknack. Juan was more amused than annoyed and thus started their goofy, shenanigan-filled adventures. It wasn't until several months later, however, when their paths would cross again...

The Cigar Bar

The two again ran into each other at their friend's birthday at The Cigar Bar, which had a live salsa band blasting old Cuban tunes in a room filled with dancing and mojitos. Juan asked Lizzie to dance, she accepted (woot!), and Juan was thrilled to learn that Lizzie knew how to salsa dance.

The First Dates

For their first dates, Juan took Lizzie on a wild array of fun filled adventures, driving up and down the pacific coast in Juan's black convertible (which he dearly misses) and packing too many events into a single day/night. Lizzie took Juan backcountry skiing in Yosemite, weeknight camping in Marin, and rock climbing in Tahoe. On a drive out of the city, we decided our adventures were a tv show we'd watch and so each subsequent adventure was a new of the "Lizzie and Juan Show". Juan even wrote an intro jingle. We're excited to share this episode ("The Wedding") with all of you!

The Proposal

Years later, Juan planned a proposal to include elements from their first dates: wine & charcuterie after hiking up Buena Vista park, sitting at the bar at Finnegan’s Wake in Cole Valley, and dinner on the waterfront. As they were watching the sunset over the city, on October 6th 2021, Juan pulled out the original octopus puppet, which he'd stolen from his friend's house years ago for this purpose. Lizzie found a ring in the tentacles and said yes.