We met at a leader gathering after we had both moved back home from college and started volunteering with Tri-Cities Young Life. Our first encounter was probably in Mike and Kelly Johnston's basement but we don't exactly remember. All we know is that several of our mutual friends thought we'd be a good match. Great call on their part.

Neither of us were interested in dating while living with our parents in TC, so we moved on from the possibility of getting together. Bri really wanted to move back to Spokane and Niehls had no interest in staying in Richland, so we both ended up in the same city again within eight months of each other but didn't reconnect for a long time. We had mutual friends in Spokane that thought we'd make a good couple without realizing that we had known each other years before. At that point, the friends tried to throw a game night to connect us in 2019 but Niehls didn't come and Bri didn't really want to be set up anyway. She would've been excited to see him, but Niehls had "other plans". It piqued both of our interest to know that we were in the same town again and both assumed our meet-cute would eventually be in a grocery store because it's very easy for us to see over the top of the aisle shelves.

Another year and a half went by before Bri went on a backpacking trip and posted the pictures on Facebook. A couple days later in September 2020, Niehls messaged Bri about blue skies (or something casual like that). We made plans to go on a walk the next week and wrapped up our first "hang out" after 7.5 miles, 4 hours and a beer. Niehls came to Bri's birthday party less than one week later to be grilled by her friends and then we eventually started going to the grocery store together where we could, in fact, see each other over the aisle shelves. We became "official" on October 15th after a double date. We (mostly Niehls) planned our couple's Halloween costume that we sported only two weeks later. Please see the "photos" tab to see evidence of our chemistry.

We had been talking about our future together well before our engagement. We noticed that we started dating on 10/15/20 (multiples of 5) and since Niehls is a big math nerd, he brought up the other cool upcoming "multiples" dates: 7/14/21 (a random Wednesday) and 8/16/24 (coincidentally, his 30th birthday). So obviously Bri knew the proposal would take place on the random July Wednesday. Bri has a standing "Walk Wednesday" date with two best friends, Emily and Katie, who asked a couple weeks in advance if Bri wanted to Hike Mt. Spokane on July 14th. Bri, being a brilliant detective, suspected an upcoming proposal. Unbeknownst to Bri, Niehls had been secretly plotting with Katie and Emily to set up a surprise proposal. Since the 7/14 date was painfully obvious, something needed to be done to throw Bri off the scent. Katie and Emily expertly changed plans at the last minute and took Bri on a different hike. Meanwhile, Niehls was setting up a romantic scene with lights, music, champagne, and a lovely charcuterie board. When the girls returned from their hike, the sounds of "Careless Whisper" by George Michael echoed through the halls as Niehls waited for Bri. From there, all we know is SHE SAID YES!

We had a small ceremony with our parents on the one-year anniversary of when we started dating. With a few friends and (miraculously) all of our siblings, we headed to Mt. Hood the next morning to hike, exchanged our written vows to each other and camped in the forest. We are excited for phase 3 of the celebration which includes partying with our extended families! Thanks for waiting a little longer for the big reception -- we love you all but also wanted to start our lives together ASAP!