We met in February 2020 during our first year of law school at the University of Washington—just one month before the world shut down. Seattle went into full lockdown mode, and suddenly, the beginning of our relationship felt like something out of a dystopian movie. Empty streets, eerie silence, grocery store shelves wiped clean—it was an ‘end of the world’ kind of vibe, and we were stuck attending Zoom School of Law, surrounded by stacks of textbooks, trying to make sense of contracts and torts while wondering if there was even going to be a world to practice law in.

But if there was a silver lining, it was that we didn’t have the usual distractions of life—just the two of us, at home, getting to know each other in this surreal, quiet bubble. Lockdown meant that we got to skip the usual dating games—no unanswered texts, no wondering if the other person was out with friends, no guessing games—just the certainty that we were both at home, probably in sweatpants, eating takeout, and avoiding doing our homework.

For months and months, we didn’t have a “normal” first date. No dinners at restaurants or going to the movies like you might expect. Instead, our first dates were simple: sitting on the couch at each other’s homes, talking for hours about everything and nothing. Even though everything else was on hold, we found our own sense of normal, finding comfort and connection in each other during the strangest of times.

We figured if we could make it through law school while the world was falling apart, we could handle whatever came next. And sure enough, since then, we’ve built a relationship that feels perfectly in sync, taking on whatever the world throws at us as a team. We moved in together in 2022, adopted our fur princess Lila in 2023, got engaged in 2024, and will celebrate 5 years together in June 2025.

Now, we’re excited to make it official and celebrate with all of you!