Back in 2014, through a series of coincidences, we both found ourselves on a website called OK Cupid. For those that do not know, OK Cupid has you answer countless relationship questions in order to assess your compatibility with other users - the more questions you answer, the more ‘exact’ a match will be. Determined to find the perfect match (or as close as can be) in an endless sea of profiles and faces, we both probably answered a collective 1,000 questions. This determination would eventually pay off, as we were paired up with a whopping 96% match (something that Brian still enjoys bragging about today!). Messages were exchanged, followed by phone numbers and then a near-constant back-and-forth via text message. It only took a week for us to realize we couldn’t wait any longer...we had to meet, and a first date was set!

Brian was just months away from starting law school at Southwestern University in Koreatown, Los Angeles, while Shaun was working at an architecture firm in Culver City. We planned to meet for drinks at the Culver Hotel, near Shaun’s office, as Brian would be in the city for a Law School welcome event. After a couple drinks, an easy rapport, and some serious flirting, we both decided that the date was going well enough to change venues and made our way to a modest sushi spot down the street. Time flew by (the happy hour sake bombs probably helped) and before we realized it we had closed the restaurant down. We capped off the evening with a goodbye and our first (and possibly most romantic!) kiss...in the Culver City Trader Joe's parking garage. Love was in the air!

We continued to see one another as often as we could, but with Brian living with his parents in the San Fernando Valley and Shaun working full time in Culver City the logistics were less than ideal. Then, in what might have been a blow to our budding relationship, Shaun's firm decided to downsize and left him suddenly without a job. Fortunately, every dark cloud has a silver lining. While Shaun spent that summer looking for work, Brian worked nights and weekends as a server and bartender as he waited for his first semester of law school to begin. The long, sunny summer weekdays were ours and we spent all of our free time together - often for hours on end, multiple days a week - taking slow strolls through Los Angeles' many museums, hiking through the Topanga mountains, and soaking up the sun at the same Malibu beaches where Brian had spent the summers of his youth. Our relationship cemented itself over those 3 months while our bond continued to deepen. It truly was our summer of love.

Shaun would eventually find a new job in Atwater Village, and Brian began his first semester of Law School in Koreatown. In another sweet twist of fate, Brian found himself living directly between Shaun's office and apartment. Despite our busy schedules, we would trade off dinner dates, television binges, and game nights between our respective homes - a luxury that not many get to have while attempting to date in Los Angeles! Two years passed and we decided that the next logical step in our relationship would be to move in together. Shaun, an only child, was nervous about sharing a space…as most people know, sharing love and sharing a bathroom are two very different things! However he got over his fear and, on our second anniversary, gifted Brian a key to his apartment. After several successful extended-stay trial runs, we took the plunge and got our first apartment together in a tiny, one-bedroom 1920’s bungalow in Silver Lake. The neighborhood was a convenient 10 minute drive to both Shaun’s office and Brian’s school but, more importantly, Silver Lake was home to amazing food and culture, the former of which (for anyone that knows us) was of utmost importance.

In the years that followed, our relationship would continue to blossom and deepen. Brian would go on to pass the California Bar Exam in 2017, becoming a licensed attorney, while Shaun found success in his architecture career, earning his license in 2018. By the spring of 2019, we found ourselves personally and professionally ready to take the next step in our lives - fatherhood! Well, dog-fatherhood, anyway. That year we adopted our scruffy, adorable, anxious bundle of joy, Olive. The love inside that tiny Silver Lake bungalow suddenly increased exponentially, and thus, the Cohen-Skoog family was born.

Early this past year, Shaun asked Brian to arrange a belated birthday vacation for him, since they had been visiting Shaun's family in Minnesota during his actual birthday. Brian took up the task and planned a romantic and event-filled trip to Joshua Tree on the weekend of February 25, 2023. Unbeknownst to Brian, Shaun had an ulterior motive! While on a hike through beautiful Joshua Tree National Park (during the first blizzard that Southern California had seen in decades) Shaun called after Brian as he hiked and hopped his way down the trail. Brian turned around to see Shaun down on one knee, ready and waiting to pop the big question. The waterworks began immediately, and froze to their faces instantly (because, again, there was a blizzard).

Just like that hike through a desert blizzard, our relationship has been a journey full of surprises and challenges. We were finally ready to celebrate the culmination of a decade as partners, and the beginning of as lifetime as husbands. We were married on May 18th, 2024 - exactly ten years to the day from our first date - in Santa Barbara, California. We both have a special connection to the city (Brian attended college at UCSB) and have fallen in love with its delicious food and wine, its historic architecture, and its beautiful beaches and mountains. We had an intimate ceremony at the Santa Barbara Courthouse, then had a reception later that evening where there was plenty of good food and wine, great music and most importantly, plenty of love. It was a truly magical weekend.

As special as our wedding was, the only thing missing were our friends and family that were unable to attend. But we are still living on cloud-nine after our recent Santa Barbara nuptials, and we know that all of our loved ones further East are still looking to party, so we figured that we would bring the celebration back to Minneapolis! On August 23, 2024, we are so looking forward to sharing our love with all of you!