Like any other beautiful modern love story, we met on an online dating app called Hinge. To be exact, Sabreena actually gave up and deleted the app but forgot to end email notifications. Hinge has this feature where they send you an email notification saying “We think you might like….” while showing a potential match. When Sabreena saw the photo of Richard and Chester (His dog), she was convinced to redownload the app again to message him.

After weeks flew by and the conversation kept going, they finally decided to meet in person for a first date on October 5th, 2019 at Mo's Irish Pub in Katy, Texas. From there, the rest was history.

With all the nerves and obstacles that took place for Rich, I think it would be that I tell it from my perspective since I was clearly oblivious to what was going to take place.

We regularly have date nights on the weekends when we do not have our daughter, Mila-May with us. So to me, it was just another night.

On February 24, 2024, we were planning on having Dinner at Brenner’s on The Bayou. Before our dinner reservation, Rich wanted to check out The Buffalo Bayou Park to kill time. As we started to walk across The Carruth Bridge, we were stopped by a social media blogger who asked us if we would like to participate in an interview where he would ask us questions about Houston and why someone should move here. Of course, we obliged and had a friendly conversation.

As we stood at the entrance of the bridge, many joggers and bicyclists were trying to pass. With my back turned, I heard someone running towards us. My first thought was to move out of the way. When I turned around I saw Mila-May sprinting full speed towards us. Being extremely confused as to what was happening, I turned towards Rich to find him already on one bent knee. With so much happening so fast, I didn’t even notice that Mila-May was running with the ring and did a quick handoff to Rich. After a long while… lol I finally gathered myself and my breath, I finally said YES! (After being asked twice lol)

Oh, and the “blogger” was in on it too! He was the photographer/videographer! Not far behind Mila-May, my family followed and gathered around us.

Afterward, we actually never made it to our reservation because it never existed. Richard ended up taking me back to Mo’s Irish Pub in Katy where we had our first date. There was a surprise engagement party with family and best friends in attendance. Rich truly outdid himself. <3