Characters from New Girl are inconsistently matched and scenes are not in chronological order. Enjoy the ride.

After moving to California from Washington State, graduating from Santa Clara University, and teaching preschool, Makinzi was starting an administrative position at a Bay Area tech company.

At the same company, Dylan was already working hard as a super smart software engineer. He had moved to California from North Carolina, graduated from Stanford where he ran track, and settled into the tech world.

They became friends through chats about New Girl, chocolate-covered mangos, and a mutual love for dogs. Like the professionals they are, these chats took place over Slack. (Fun Fact: Dylan did not give Makinzi his cell phone number until after they were dating.)

Everything changed in September 2019, when they accidentally matched two days in a row and Dylan challenged, "We won't match every day until someone notices." Having been trained well in shenanigans by her brothers, Makinzi accepted the challenge and the two were off to the races.

At this point, the story diverges depending on who you ask.

Dylan: The two engaged in 100% platonic conversation about what to wear each day. Since they were developing such great friendship, Dylan kindly left chocolate-covered mangos on Makinzi's desk after-hours for her to discover the following morning. Also because of their great friendship, as well as a desire to reduce his TV time, Dylan dropped off his TV to her house for free.

Makinzi: The matching kicked off the flirting. Dylan left surprises on Makinzi's desk, stayed up late getting to know Makinzi on a more personal level (over Slack), met her at Nordstrom Rack while shopping for matching shirts, walked through Ikea as a non-date date, and even gave Makinzi his TV in a genius long-game play. (Fun Fact: They still have this same TV. He got it back.)

Through this time, they continued to match every single day at work. They would coordinate when Dylan needed to pack his work shirts in advance because he was "cat-sitting." Makinzi was convinced that was code for "spend time with a lady friend."

Spoiler: He really was cat-sitting a sweet little guy named Panda.

Finally, Makinzi took the lead on January 19, 2020. She bribed him with Panettone and play time with Jeff The Dog and, just like that, they began to date.

Since they still worked together, they decided to keep their relationship to themselves. They agreed from the get-go that they were looking for a partner in life and felt it would be best to maintain some level of privacy while they figured things out.

For three months, all was going well. Matching was continuing. The work-relationship boundary was being maintained. Love was blossoming. (Fun Fact: They still match every day at work.)

They celebrated Dylan's birthday on Match 15 by having a great family-style dinner at Rangoon Ruby with friends (featuring Dylan's now Best Man, Samir).

So, Makinzi moved on in! She quickly filled Dylan's teeny tiny studio in Palo Alto with all of her "essentials."

And then, in the middle of the night a week later, she packed up all of her crap because the way Dylan was breathing in his sleep convinced her he didn't want her there.

You may be thinking, "This makes no sense."

Yes. We agree.

Dylan calmly talked Makinzi out of her hysterical and nonsensical packing spree and into deep breaths and sleep. In the morning, they laughed it off while unpacking all of her things. (Fun fact: This is still their biggest fight to date.)

Reassured and settled in, they set off on a quest to counter the stir-craziness that comes with being in the same 400 sq ft space at all times.

They mapped out the neighborhood around them to walk every street, completed an elaborate 30-for-30 challenge for Dylan (ask about this later - Dylan will be happy to share), and rearranged Dylan's living room/kitchen/dining room 30 times.

This was fun and all, but it is important to note that working in the same room while maintaining a secret relationship came with its challenges.

Calls were strategic.

Hand signals were developed.

Zoom backgrounds were used.

By June 2020, they moved in together in an actual apartment in Foster City and Makinzi was back to working from the office. Dylan still worked from home.

Dylan kindly let Makinzi continue to dogsit there. He would take care of the dogs all day and Makinzi would take cute photos to post in their work's "Puppies" channel. It was a perfect balance – until the day a yappy little puppy named Nola exposed their secret.

Nola barked. Dylan was on a work call. Dylan showed the dog to the entire team. Makinzi had already posted a photo of Nola. There was no going back.

It turned out that no one cared.

Well, they were happy for Makinzi and Dylan, but the sky did not fall, the universe did not explode, and the world kept on turning.

If you are wondering by this point "how long is this story section on their wedding website?" then you will be relieved to hear that you have reached the point where Makinzi and Dylan's life together became as normal as it could be during a global pandemic.

They continued to work at the same company.

They went paddleboarding less than they imagined when they bought the paddleboard but often enough that they had fun.

They watched many more dogs.

They ate just about every item off of the Dog Haus menu.

They met each other's friends and families.

They realized more and more each day how much they enjoyed just being together.

Fast forward through beach trips with Dylan's family, road trips with Makinzi's, one apartment move to Burlingame, more work at the same company, one incident of Dylan serving raw hamburger, and at least eight re-watches of New Girl, and arrive at March 15, 2023.

Makinzi: I was so excited to have booked dinner at a restaurant walking distance from our home, Stella Alpina, for Dylan's birthday. The restaurant had just moved and opened their new location. We could only get a pretty late reservation but, fortunately, I got a call from the restaurant offering to move our reservation earlier because it was for Dylan's birthday. I thought this was so nice! I excitedly told Dylan about the change of plans.

On the morning of, I saw a text from Dylan's mom that morning asking if "the plan" was still on and sharing her excitement for us. I was really happy to see she felt the same about such lovely birthday dinner plans for her son. I'm a big birthday person.

After work, we got all dolled up and walked to dinner. The restaurant offered remarkably impressive service: a warm welcome from everyone who worked there, a phenomenal table spot, and they even brought out birthday desserts for both of us. Who does that?! Incredible. Above and beyond. Five star.

Oddly enough, Dylan was unenthusiastic about my dessert photography. He insisted that I put my phone down, but I really wanted a nice photo for his mom. The waiters were all taking photos, too, since obviously they were proud of their excellent service. I figured they wanted to capture the birthday song for their Instagram.

Birthday singing done, I set down my phone and returned my attention to the dessert.

Dylan: After some (unsolicited) advice on how to propose, I opted for the totally blindside her approach. Knowing Makinzi had made a reservation at Stella for my birthday, I walked over to the restaurant the evening before to tell the staff my plan. Luckily, the manager was around and, after hearing my plan, was happy to work with me to move us to the "sweetheart" table and bump the reservation time up. She made up an excuse about a cancellation and called Makinzi to check if the new time would be acceptable.

Come the day of, I had told no one about my plan (except my dentist) so it was pretty easy to get through the day without any suspicion. We told people we were celebrating my birthday that evening and otherwise no big plans.

After our waiter came by to take our drink orders I pretended to go to the restroom and found him and told him I was planning to propose. I gave him my phone and asked him to take photos later that evening.

After dinner and right before dessert I pretended to go to the restroom again and put the ring box awkwardly in my pocket and came back to the table. The waiters brought out cakes and sang happy birthday which was my cue to move, however, Makinzi was taking cake photos while the waiter and the rest of the staff were waiting with Champagne.

Then, Dylan got down on one knee and said, "All I want for my birthday is to marry you."

Obviously, Makinzi said yes.