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Wine is a little like love: when the right one comes along, you will know.

Her Story

I had tried them all, all the dating apps that existed…except one…Bumble. I think because it was so hyped up I was purposely avoiding it (yeah, I am a rebel like that). My great friend Lindsey was telling me to try it, told me a friend of hers got married to someone she met on Bumble. Whatever, that’s a one in a million.

 

On a cold and rainy January 8th, 2018 I decided to play hooky from work and snuggle up under some blankets instead. Bored, I finally downloaded Bumble, having zero expectations as I mindlessly swiped and swiped and swiped to the left. Garbage. As I was beginning to become irked with this app, I came across a handsome fella with a super cute golden retriever. It may have been the cowboy hat or the smile, I swiped right and put my phone away to take a needed morning nap…what else do you do on a rainy day in Pasadena? I get an alert on my phone that woke me from my entirely too short of a nap…oh look, handsome fella with golden retriever matched me. If you’re fortunate to have never had to use dating apps then you might not know all the quirks of them, Bumble requires the woman to initiate the conversation, so the men are just left hanging until we are done napping, showering, doing our make up and hair just to go nowhere. Since we matched and I was curious about him…and the dog…I struck up a conversation and we chatted for a good portion of the day. I am a very very patient person, anyone who knows me will vouch for that, but when I want something all that patience takes a flying leap of a tall bridge. And in this case, I wanted to meet this man, so naturally I tapped into my Bubble’ness and initiated the date. “So you wanna meet tonight? Beer? Cocktails? Wine?” He chose wine and I knew just the perfect spot for our first date…Bodega, a small little wine bar not far from home.

 

Like I mentioned earlier, patience is no friend of mine when I want something, and I wanted this date to start already…so naturally I show up 30 minutes early, grab a table and start sipping away…alone. As time drew near, I got more anxious and more nervous and as fifteen minutes past our agreed upon time passed…I grew annoyed. Whipped out my phone with attitude and asked where he was at. “I’m here” he replied…where?? Oh yeah at the bar, and I am seated at a table against a wall that blocks the bar…ok I felt a little stupid but whatever…the date must go on. We talked and laughed and probably annoyed other people around us but I didn’t care, I was having an amazing date. As it came to an end, he walked me to my car and I sealed the deal with a kiss…turns out frogs to turn into princes - kidding!

 

We continued to see each other more and more and more. Daniel took me to my first trip to Paso Robles, which I am sure he still has some tinge of regret as we discovered I have really expensive taste in wine. We created a life together, us and the pups (Luc and Benji). We went on countless adventures, had many laughs and grew together as a couple. Daniel has always pushed me to grow, and though at the moment I probably hate it, I know I have become a better person for it.

 

Cue 2020 – the COVID pandemic, Luc having cancer, and our talks of having a wedding in the distant future, 2020 threw giant curve-balls in our lives. We love our Luc and made the decision that we would get married this year in the fall, to make sure that he could be a part of the wedding. It mattered to Daniel and it mattered to me. And so for a marriage to happen, Daniel had to propose…(see the proposal page for that story) 

His Story

It’s funny how a simple swipe right can lead to something as great as finding the person you are going to marry, but hey it’s the 21st Century & here we are.  January 7th 2018… I was sitting on the couch with my then roommate Alex having a couple of beers with dinner when the topic of my dating life came up.  “She lives on the Westside, what do you expect?”  He was of course right, I needed to take dating a little more seriously. After all I was staring down the back side of my 30’s! So begrudgingly I re-downloaded Bumble for the umpteenth time and created a new profile; I was a few drinks in and I had a policy of not drinking and swiping (trust me on this) so after another beer and some Call of Duty I called it a night.   The next day it was raining which made for a slow day at work.  I decided to whip out the ole iPhone and see if I had any matches overnight. Left Swipe, scan left swipe, scan left swipe, scan… interesting…  four profiles in and an incredibly attractive Blonde with an Italian sounding name caught my eye.  Her profile was funny, and she had a dog so I know she would not be a cat person (no offense to y’all but cats and Luc don't always get along well).  What the heck shoot for the moon; right swipe… MATCH!  As I was showing my co-worker Glen the total babe I just matched with… DING, She messaged me! We chatted on the app for the better part of that morning I learned that she was very close to where I worked so she invited me out for happy hour that night at a wine Bar called Bodega about a mile from my work.  NO PROLEM… well except for the fact that I was wearing old stinky shoes that were falling apart because I didn’t want to get nice shoes messed up in the rain.  No way I could make it home let Luc out, change my shoes and make it back up to Pasadena from Downtown LA in time for happy hour.  I would need to buy new shoes before the date at DSW.  But first I would need to call in a favor.

​

“Hey Alex whatcha up to tonight” 

“Nothing fool no Kings on TV… what up with you?  Fried Chicken for dinner?”

“Actually I was hoping you could do me a couple of favors”

“What now? Forget your f*%#ing keys again?”

“No no, I have those, I scored a date tonight with this smoking hot Lithuanian babe, she wants to meet for a happy hour after work I was wondering if you could take Luc for a walk when you get home”

“Cool cool yeah man fo’ sho”

“One last thing, we are meeting up at 5:00 can you call my cell phone at 6pm sharp and bail me out if this is another psychopath?” 

“You got it meng”

“Seriously set an alarm”

“Ok, ok it's set, good luck and don’t get killed”

​

I dipped out of the office at 4:30, plenty of time to head over to DSW and get a new pair of shoes… as luck would have it they had a pair of black leather Converse All Stars on clearance in my size… sweet.  After killing some time breaking the shoes in and getting them just a little dirty so they wouldn’t look so new I went up to the bar right at 5.  She wasn’t there yet so I ordered a glass of water and waited… and waited and waited.  5:15… did I get stood up?    DING!  “Hey where are you are you coming?” She asked via text… HUH?  I was so confused but after a quick exchange there she was...waiting for me at a table looking absolutely stunning.    That first hour went by quicker that a blink of an eye and right on queue Alex called me at 6pm.  “Yo you dead man?  I chuckled I told him it was actually going well, and I’d come home a bit alter than I thought and asked him to feed Luc dinner.  I hung up just as she was coming out of the restroom.  The side eye that now has become a familiar look of coy suspicion lit up her face… “Did you arrange for a call mid date so you could bail if this was going bad?” She asked.  She read my play like a book… she will never admit to it but I’d bet $5 that she did the same thing... This was the first in what would be a string of similar ways of thinking that drew us together.

​

It was just supposed to be a drink over happy hour, but 5 hours later over 2 glasses of wine something clicked.  Love of wine our dogs and deep honest conversation would be the corner stones of our relationship.  Slowly at first but as the weeks passed, we began spending more and more time together.  It wasn’t long before I brought her up to Paso Robles to show her the place and wine I had become enthralled with; Over the next two years and many adventures together we grew closer; the dogs Benji and Luc always with us a fixture in the story of us.  From the many trips to California’s Central coast other trips all over the US over the country to moving in together life for the four of us seemed to be going perfect.  Then suddenly the world as we know it shifted.  COVID-19 threw the whole world a curve ball.   Plans I had for an elaborate proposal on my 40th Birthday in front of friends and family would be shelved as we made significant budget cuts and social distancing became our everyone’s new normal.  But, like we always have we leaned on each other, supported one another, and have grown closer during this pressing time; Just the four of us is all we really needed!  Then in early April we got news that devastated us.  Luc was diagnosed with both T-Cell Lymphoma and Stage 3 Malignant Melanoma.  We Made the choice to aggressively treat his cancers are moving forward with treatment, but it is costly and there are no guarantees we can significantly pro-long the inevitable.  We CANNOT imagine Luc not being around on the day we officially become a family so we decided to marry this year, in the autumn to give us the best chance at that while Luc is still with us. We couldn’t imagine a better place than Paso Robles to celebrate our story and give us one more memory together as a family of four.

The Proposal

Devils Postpile 7/4/2020

Another Full Moon

"I wonder how long will it take him to wash up in San Fransisco from here?" - Floretina

The proposal was a forgone conclusion once we decided to get married... that being said I still wanted to make it special.  My line of (flawed) reasoning thought it would be a GREAT idea to do this after a 12 mile hike on my favorite Holiday; The look on Florentina's face after those 12 miles said otherwise.  And while the hike was indeed beautiful, I'm sure the thought might have crossed her mind, once or twice, to throw me into the raging San Juaquin River. So, I opted to let everyone get a nice meal and rest before staging the engagement at the Devils Postpile, with help from Micah and Mae running distraction and damage control.  

I'm sure the idea of tossing me in the River crossed EVERYONE'S mind once I showed them the accent to the top of the Postpile.... We missed sunset but Micah and Mae did a fantastic job in capturing the moment.  We headed up to the Minarets afterwards to catch the moon rise and enjoyed some Champagne by campfire to end the night  dry and safe - Daniel

Engagement Photos

Coming Soon...

We are young Once

When we take them, we'll post them

More stories to come

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