Hi! We are about a month out from the wedding and are very excited about it. The regulations in Washington State and Snohomish County have been changing relatively rapidly. In light of these circumstances, we are asking that everyone bring proof of vaccination and/or a negative COVID test (taken within 72 hours of the wedding) to the wedding. If this is not an option for you and we can provide a link to a streaming option for the wedding so you can still be a part of our special day. We want this event to be a beautiful and safe celebration of the start of our lives together. Please refer to our FAQs on the website for additional information and let us know if you have any questions. We love you and cannot wait to see you! Love, Brian and Amanda P.S. If you do not want to bring your physical vaccination card, a picture will work perfectly!

If you cannot attend in person, but would still like to be a part of our special day please tune into https://www.twitch.tv/houseofmillie/ on September 25, 2021 at 3pm. Thank you! We are excited to have you virtually with us! Love, Amanda and Brian

It was the first week of Freshman Year at the University of Washington. Brian and Amanda lived on the third floor in McMahon in the Business Living Community. Amanda, being the social butterfly that she is, was planning a game night and went to each Cluster inviting everyone to the game night. When she went to the cluster right across the hall, a cute boy answered the door (hint: it was Brian). Amanda was at a loss for words for a moment and then said in a over bubbly tone, "Hi! My name is Amanda, I live across the hall and my clustermates and I are planning a game night tonight. We would like to invite you and your clustermates over if you wanna come! It should be a lot of fun!" In that moment, Brian thought "Wow, she is cute!" Brian ended up being the only guy from his Cluster that came to the game night and it was a blast. The relationship didn't start until Winter/Spring Quarter, but this was the start of running into each other in the dorms and the Business School!

During Winter 2014 they were in a class together. Brian started sitting behind Amanda and they started talking to each other and building a friendship, A couple weeks into the quarter, Brian built up the courage to ask Amanda to go to Church with him over Facebook. Amanda, who was looking for a Church, eagerly said yes! She was interested in Brian but wasn't sure if he was interested in her, which he was. This would be a great way to get to know him in a low stakes environment. From there they went to church together every week and starting having lunch together afterwards. Brian even started going to a Bible Study that Amanda hosted, despite going to 5 other Bible studies every week. In February of that year, Amanda's beloved family dog, Maddie, had passed away. Amanda was devastated and let Brian know. He being the caring guy that he is, he walked all the way to Cafe on the Ave and got a slice of chocolate cake and left it at her dorm door with a note saying "I am sorry for your loss." Amanda then invited Brian over to share the cake with her and they bonded over their love of dogs and he helped Amanda with processing the grief of losing Maddie. They didn't become an official couple until after spring break on April 5, 2014. This was a crazy night that led them to Factoria to watch Captain America: Winter Soldier, they then got stranded in Bellevue, because the buses were no longer running from Bellevue to the U-District. Needing to figure out how to get home, they took a bus to the International District. At this point it was past Midnight and Amanda was scared, but Brian made her feel safe. In that moment while waiting to catch a bus to the U-District, Amanda asked Brian, "Do you want to be Official?" Brian asked, "Is that what you want?" Amanda responded "Yes." And Brian said "Okay, then we can be official." They made it home safely and it was the start of a beautiful relationship.

While one could say taking this step was a long time coming, given the fact that it was 2020 it took a bit more coordination to be able to pull off the way we wanted, but in hindsight we think it was worth it. In July of 2020 at this point in the COVID lockdown cycle many “non-essential” businesses were just starting to re-open. After many months of having their doors closed to the public our favorite winery in Leavenworth was finally reopening their doors to the public, albeit in a limited capacity. And it was here, where Brian found an opportunity to be able to ask the most important question to Amanda. Now Brian had been thinking about this long beforehand, in fact between himself the two eventual co-maids of honor and two co-best men of honor we were already working on hatching a plan on how he would ask Amanda. And after tossing around a few separate ideas, dates, once Brian mentioned to Amanda that their favorite winery was opening back up again she leaped at the opportunity to be able to make the trek out to the mountains and have a fun day trip visiting their favorite winery. It was almost as if she was in on it and picked the moment herself. Now from a high level overview, it was really quite a simple plan. Amanda and Brian would go wine tasting, and then after walk down to the riverfront park to their favorite bench and there Brian would pop the question. Then to further add to the fun Brian’s brother Nathaniel, best friend Sidd, and Amanda’s best friend, Kelsey, would pop out and surprise her. Seems simple right? Well it wouldn’t be a 2020 proposal if something didn’t go swimmingly….

Halfway through wine tasting Nathaniel sent a text to Brian saying “Hey…. There isn’t a bench here”…. To which Brian’s mind starts racing and texting up a storm trying to coordinate where the spot was. He thought “Did I send them the wrong coordinates? Did the bench get removed? Did I imagine that there was a bench when there wasn’t and this was really an intervention from the universe telling me I’m actually losing my mind? Well I’ll deal with the one existential question later right now I’m too busy focused on proposing to the love of my life.” After a flurry of text messages they eventually agreed to stick to the original spot the bench was “supposed” to be. Brian was trying to do this all discreetly so that Amanda wouldn’t notice. It wasn't like the constant texting and slightly distracted boyfriend was dropping some very “subtle” hints. After wrapping up the wine tasting they decided to make their way to the park. At this point Brian wasn’t nervous to ask the question, what he was nervous about was mixing up the locations and Nathaniel texting him after he popped the question saying “Hey….. where are you guys?” And not being able to capture the moment. Eventually after making our way to the spot Brian noticed Nathaniel off in the bushes hiding with a camera in addition to Sidd and Kelsey ruffling in the foliage as well. It was at this point he knew that the moment was now and after tapping Amanda on the shoulder asking “Hey Amanda, can I ask you something?” She turned around to Brian on one knee asking “Will you marry me?” Amanda immediately gave Brian the biggest hug saying, "Yes, Yes, a million times yes!" Brian placed the ring on Amanda's finger and said "I have one more surprise." At this point, Nathaniel, Sidd, and Kelsey popped out of the bushes and congratulated the newly engaged couple!