We're getting married!

Althea and her friends, Susannah and Lexi, found an awesome house to rent in SE Portland and we named it "The Pony House". It was perfect, but we needed two more roommates. We asked our good friend, Casey Baird if he wanted to move in and if he knew anyone else who would be a good fit. He suggested his friend, Matt Fields. Althea was too busy with work to meet Matt before he moved in, but Susannah interviewed him and gave him nod of approval as a roommate...little did she know that she would be helping two strangers fall in love!

When we moved in to The Pony House, we immediately took a liking to each other. At first, we mostly connected about our shared passion: food! As time went on, we found ourselves staying up late talking about life, family, relationships, our love for nature and much more. We started making all sorts of excuses to hang out together, from Matt's clever mozzarella making ploy to bike rides to get fancy sandwiches. After a few months of cautious flirting, Matt bravely confessed his feelings while they're were sitting on the back porch. Althea finally admitted that she was smitten as well, even though she had already confessed to many of her friends about her huge crush on Matt. We had our first "official" date on a beautiful July day at Mount Tabor, where we watched the sun set while listening to bossa nova and eating sungold tomatoes that were warm from the sun. The city was bathed that evening in a beautiful summer golden light that seemed magical and meant just for us.

It was during the middle of an intense heat wave in Portland, but Matt was very insistent that we attend a Portland Pickles (our local baseball team) game despite the 105 degree heat. Althea gamely sat through 4 innings in the blazing sun, mostly because she was very suspicious that Matt might propose because he had been dropping some hints. We eventually gave up and went to sit on a bench at Mount Tabor, the site of our first date. We sat and watched the sun sink over the insanely hot city. Then, when we had decided to leave, on the very top of the hill overlooking Portland, Matt pretended he had a stick stuck in his sandal and got down on one knee and proposed. Althea immediately said yes!!! and was also very impressed with his choice of ring, a "salt and pepper" diamond with opals (Althea's birthstone). Matt had made reservations at our favorite Portland restaurant, Coquine, which is right at the foot at the mountain. Our friends are the proprietors and were thrilled to hear our news, they immediately brought a a lovely and splendidly cold bottle of champagne and we shared a fabulous meal al fresco, including an unforgettable chilled squid in a bright snap pea broth.