Charles was living in the Bay Area in 2014 and visited Portland on a business trip, when he was introduced to Brittany by a mutual friend and coworker—her bridesmaid, Melanie—at a local bar called Jackknife. At the time, we didn't think much of it (the overcrowded bar or our fateful meeting). A couple years later, Charles moved to the PNW and was quickly brought into the fold of Brittany's friend group. While Melanie tried to set us up, we remained friends until March of 2017 when we hit it off at Kells Irish Pub during a St. Patrick's Day celebration. Despite a few too many Guinnesses, we were able to get our act together, went on our first date later that week, and the rest is history!

In October 2019, we took a trip to Oahu and Maui. Brittany suspected something was up when Charles—a Type A, detail-oriented vacation planner—added the somewhat vague phrase “sunset at beach” to the trip itinerary for our first night in Maui. While Charles was able to throw her off a bit, sunset at beach turned into proposal at beach when Charles got down on one knee and proposed on Wailea Beach. Despite many happy tears (which is not a surprise for anyone who knows Brittany), she said "yes” and proceeded to tell literally everyone we encountered the rest of our time in Maui about our engagement. We capped off our Hawaii trip with a quick weekend visit to Southern California on the way back to Portland, where Charles surprised Brittany with an engagement party full of friends and family.

We are so excited for the next chapter in our lives, and look forward to celebrating with all our guests in July. In the meantime, we’ll keep our website updated with all relevant wedding and travel details. See you in Portland!