About Us
Meet Ashley
The Bodacious Bride
Ashley grew up in Phoenix, AZ, and moved to the Bay Area after college. She took a year and a half off work in her late twenties to travel around Central and South America, and taught English in a small town in Chile. Ashley loves karaoke and has been a lead singer in two Bay Area bands and plays both guitar and piano (poorly). She has a Master's in Public Administration and is now EVP of People & Culture for a small marketing agency. Her hobbies include running, yoga, singing, and traveling, and she loves cappuccinos, dessert, pinot noir, and most importantly, Max!
Meet Max
The Gallant Groom
Max was born in Russia (but we support Ukraine!), and moved to the Bay Area in the early 90s. Max spent about 10 years dancing salsa competitively (look him up on Youtube!) in his 20s, traveling internationally and getting awards with his dance partners and dance teams. He also taught salsa for years, but has since retired and just dances when he feels like it. Max is currently the Senior Director of Analytics for a large marketing agency. His hobbies include video games, finding and listening to new music, researching headphones, and traveling, and he loves coffee, bread, beer, and of course, Ashley!
How We Met
A Workplace Romance...
In 2014, both Max and Ashley started working at a small digital marketing agency in San Francisco. Ashley was a Project Manager at the time and Max, a Web Analyst, and their paths didn't cross much. Fast forward a few months when at a work theme party, they both discovered their love of tearing up the dance floor and making fun of each other. Max had a broken toe and a boot due to a beach soccer incident, but somehow Ashley found that endearing. Numbers were exchanged and they had their first official date that weekend. And here we are 8+ years later! The photo above is the first photo they ever took together, in the middle was Ashley's boss at the time and a lovely human, Vanessa.
He Said Yes!
Proposal in the Desert
Starting in 2016, Max joined in on Ashley's family tradition of making an annual pilgrimage to the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, AZ for their holiday event, Las Noches de las Luminarias. If you haven't been, it's an incredible month-long event featuring thousands of luminaries (small paper lanterns) lining the trails and buildings all around the gardens. Each year they showcase a different artist to light up the gardens with beautiful light art, plus they have live music and drinks throughout the garden. While Ashley and Max took 2020 off due to COVID, Ashley made plans to make their 2021 trip an extra special one with just the two of them. After arriving at the gardens, they first had dinner at a lovely restaurant overlooking the gardens (Ashley hardly ate anything because she was incredibly nervous and Max didn't even notice!). Then they walked into the gardens at sunset admiring the Dale Chihuly art that was featured throughout the garden. As the sun was setting, they headed to where their favorite Desert Botanical Gardens band (Traveler) was playing and found a couch next to a fire pit. Ashley then pulled out a box full of small pieces of paper highlighting the many reasons she loves him. Max, not realizing that this was a proposal said "oh no - I didn't get you anything". Ashley said don't worry, and when he got to the final piece of paper she pulled out a ring and he finally got it. :) Thankfully, he said yes, and here we are!