Tyler and I met at Westmont College in beautiful Santa Barbara, California in 2009. We went to a basketball game together, and the romance began… Just kidding. He thought I was a crazy feminist and I thought he was something of a slacker. It turns out we just didn’t yet realize what was standing right in front of us.

Mutual friends and common interests kept us in similar social circles, and one fateful night we ran into each other at a party. I promised him a ride home and then left him (accidentally). His teasing texts about my forgetfulness somehow turned into our first date!

Over the next couple months, what began as a friendship blossomed into a romance. Visions of spontaneous road trips and appreciation for film and junk food drew us together, as I slowly realized I had finally found the man who loved me in all the ways I need to be loved.

Today, Tyler and I share a deep, affectionate romance based on a mutual love of travel, music, drink and living life to its very fullest.

The real story, though, is what is to come: trips across the US and the world, making a home in Santa Barbara, enjoying good food and good times.

Rewind to January 2, 2013- I had just finished my first day at a new job, and my girlfriends were taking me out to dinner to celebrate. They drove us to a restaurant on Hendry’s Beach, and my best friend told me I needed to see a mural behind the restaurant.

As we walked along the beach I saw a man standing up ahead. There waited my one true love, waiting in the cold, looking his handsomest, and holding a dozen roses. He led me up a candlelit stone staircase, and up at the top, overlooking the beach, dropped to one knee.

I can’t remember a single thing he said (I was so shocked) but he tells me he said I was his best friend, his true love, and the person he wants to spend his life with. Through the tears and stars I was seeing, I said the smartest thing I’ve ever said- yes.

He led me back down the staircase where our friends and family waited to congratulate us, and we all celebrated together.