Sarah and I met while working for Amazon, in San Marcos, TX. Sarah started as a college hire in 2016 from the University of Arizona, while Zach started in 2015 as a college hire from Miami University, and was originally slotted for Kenosha, WI. When Bill Hicks asked me to go to Texas, there was zero decision to be made, I hated Wisconsin, and Texas sounded so much better (based on my one spring break visit to Coleman's in college).

Sarah "allegedly" knew the recruiter (from Kappa, of course) and got all her sorority (Jade) and intern friends (Shane) to also be assigned to San Marcos as well.

Our building launched, with a short term assignment in Tampa for 2 months. There were almost 100, new to Amazon hires, then a core group of us from Wisconsin. The year prior, I got to be the college hire that knew nothing, for this launch I was the experience manager (who still knew nothing). If you had asked me day 1, who wouldn't make it, I would have bet every paycheck that the hyper, excitable, sorority girl Sarah wouldn't make it a week.

Sarah was on my shift, I think it was 12 or so people. Sarah was one of the few women, but for everyone who is attending this wedding that knows Sarah, they all know she is the butt of every joke. Jared and I were ruthless to her, then she would resort to personal insults like my ship sorter holding back her work performance (which, I was definitely a downstream barrier for her department).

Fast forward a year or two, I don't know how many, Amazon can be a drag. Sarah and I were stationed in the same department, she still treated me like the idiot that couldn't run a dock, we still roasted her in every daily meeting, lunch, and anytime the team sat down together. It was during this time that I realized, somewhere down the road that Sarah was an incredibly talented leader, way stronger in her Amazon knowledge than I had ever expected. She might have even taught me a few things (I won't ever admit it).

By 2018, as more people moved shifts, moved buildings, the core group of our work friends eroded. This is when Sarah and I transitioned to the weird friendship part of our relationship. I am pretty sure we ate dinner 2-3x a week together, just the two of us. I know my mom is reading this, thinking to herself, you went out to dinner alone with this cute girl and never started dating her. And You are right Lisa, I may have missed some signals.

6 months later, October 2017, Sarah and I were ditched by Michelle, this was the first time that we had hung out outside of work/ after work meals). That was were we officially started, drinking alcoholic punch out of ceramic animals from TJ maxx at Whisler's, waiting for Michelle. Sarah and I have been inseparable ever since.

Around Thanksgiving 2017, Lisa Simon found out about Sarah. I would not shut up about how great of a cook Sarah was as she prepared our team dinner. Though my mother found out immediately (I do follow food), we tried to hide our relationship through that peak and utterly failed in a few instances. The best one was the rain storm, Sarah and I were waiting in my car outside the building (hers had broken down, important detail later). It was the worst rain I have ever seen, a rain storm that would have had Noah loading the Ark. We sat there, for 10-15 minutes, waiting for it to pass and decided to bolt.

We arrived at the morning meeting together (which was bad enough because Sarah is super punctual, and I at this point was late for every meeting, sorry Facca). Sarah and I were drenched and absolutely soaked through, my shoes were leaking water. Everyone else, somehow missed this rain storm, and were dry as can be.

The second time, Renzi, my boss and work out partner at the time asked me for a ride home. Had a flat, didn't want to deal with it. I think he asked me at 10 am, Sarah and I worked until like 3pm, coming up with a cover story, as to why she needed a ride home (her aforementioned car was dead in my apartment complex). Renzi would have figured this right out, so we decided that I would drop her off at her apartment (15 minutes away), then drive Renzi home, go back and get Sarah. We hashed out every detail, then right before the end of the day, Renzi balked on needing a ride.

After that first peak, Sarah moved to Dallas in 2018. Sarah and I got Joe (the greatest dog ever, please follow her instagram). Sarah and I spent a full year, between Austin and Dallas on weekends (by weekends, we mean Mon-Thurs to work the BHN night shift). In 2019, I took a virtual role to be able to work from Dallas. From there in 2020, we moved to Tucson, where Sarah was promoted a few times. Later, we added Goose to the family, started skiing, backpacking, and biking.

In 2021, we moved to Seattle (well Snoqualmie), to buy a house together, lay down roots, and have the opportunity to progress our careers in a corporate setting. We bought the only house we could find, that worked for us, worked for the dogs, and the mountain of hobby equipment we have acquired.

In 2022, we will get married just a few thousand feet down the road from our first home (so that the dogs can attend, obviously). We understand that for everyone of our family and friends, this will be a long trip. But Sarah and I are so excited to share the town and area that we have quickly fallen in love with.

Simon and I officially met in Tampa, Florida during my first assignment with Amazon and my first real “big girl” job. Originally, I viewed Simon as a loud, obnoxious frat boy. This is probably why I teased him endlessly plus, he was the only person in the room who was louder than I was. I knew Simon was special when he showed me how many cupcakes he could eat in one bite in a row… I think it was around eight.

For about two years, Simon and I spent many (mandatory) work hours together and ate practically every meal together. I viewed Simon as nothing more than a buddy, who I spent all my time with. During this time, if someone had told me that I would own a house, two puppies and 9 chickens with Simon, I would have told them they were absolutely insane.

As Simon and I spent more time together, I started to think of him as slightly more than a friend. I thought he felt the same until one day when Simon and I were stuck in his apartment because of Hurricane Harvey and my apartment’s parking lot was flooded. During a forced viewing of some hockey movie, he *almost* kissed me, but chickened out at the last minute. If I am being honest, I was a little crushed, but we continued on as best friends.

Fast forward to October(ish) 2017 on one night out, our friend Michelle thought it would be hilarious to ditch us, and we went out to the bars, just the two of us. Somewhere on 6th street and a few vodka redbulls (stay tuned for our signature drinks) later, he finally pulled the trigger and kissed me on the dance floor. From that point on, we were pretty much glued at the hip. I 10/10 recommend kissing your best friend.

A few months into our relationship, we grew tired of attempting to keep our relationship a secret while working on the same shift. Especially the one time that he "accidentally" squirted hand sanitizer in my eye at at team sync meeting and ran after me when I started crying. (For context, this was about a month into all of the area managers participating in "hand sanitizer wars" where we would all squirt hand sanitizer across the room at each other.) I decided to take a role in Dallas, TX and Zach would stay in Austin. Now that were were finally on a first name basis, both of us spent the next few months driving back and forth from Austin to Dallas. Eventually Zach moved to Dallas with me, and I surprised him by bringing home a puppy.

Jolene has entered the chat. End of story. Jolene did, in fact, take my man.

After yet, another move (our third as a couple) to Tucson, Arizona, Jolene was lonely and I once again brought home another puppy. Now, we have Jolene and Goose who are truly the two best friends that anyone could have. Nothing makes us happier as a couple than getting outside, exploring and hanging out with our little family.

One move later and Zach and I have bought our first house on our own little acre of paradise in Snoqualmie, WA. When we are not renovating our house, we love to spend time hiking, camping and biking and working as part time ski/snowboard instructors.

For our wedding, we have chosen to keep the day as local as possible, so we can show off our beautiful town to all of our family and friends. Our venue is about a minute away from our house, and we hear June in Seattle is pretty incredible. We cannot wait to see you all!