I like you & I love you…

They met at the rather tempestuous age of thirteen, played mini-golf and fell madly, deeply in friendship. They wrote each other, went to Knott’s Berry Farm and eventually lost touch, as people do. They stayed in sporadic contact throughout the years, but it wasn’t until over a decade later when they reconnected at an empty coffee shop on a cold December 2011 night in Old Towne Orange that the truth came out - they both actually like-liked each other in those early days of AOL Instant Messenger, but neither wanted to jeopardize the friendship at the time. From there, it was a hop, skip and a Venture Brothers marathon away from dating and, within a couple months, they admitted to falling madly, deeply in love with one another.

They would spend weekends picking up take out and accompanying bottles of “cheeseburger wine” while watching Star Trek Voyager. Eventually they moved into the quintessential first apartment - it was tiny, cheap, had mold, zero parking and made them… blissfully happy. It wasn’t until they moved to their Fountain Valley apartment (bigger, more expensive, less mold, still no parking) that they decided to expand their family of two to a family of two and a half and adopted their little Fry cat. He’s a silly, affectionate pseudo-puppy and they love him to pieces.

In August 2018, they finally planned a week-long vacation just for the two of them to Portland, OR. Keen to sample any and all food and drink the city had to offer, they planned their trip around breweries, restaurants and a fancy night-out. The first day, however, would start with a hike through Marquam Nature Park. it was on a tiny trail overlooking a green canyon, just as the sun was breaking through the clouds, that the question was asked - “Do you want some water?” She said yes and while he fumbled around in his backpack, she enjoyed the warm sun and gracefully wondered out loud if she had on enough deodorant. Little did she know that he had started an audio recording of this exact moment. Then just as she was becoming curious about what was taking so long, out came a handmade wooden box. He asked her to marry him, she said yes, they managed to not fall into the canyon while they embraced in their overjoyed state and within 30 seconds a shirtless, sweaty older gentleman and his dog politely asked to squeeze past them on the trail. It was perfect.

All photography provided by West Imagery.