Now Married! 8/2/2024

Gabrielle and Vance met in May 2020 at Lake Merritt. He and his roommate, Ekow, reluctantly ventured out to join her and some friends for a lake hang. During this time, Gabrielle was an avid runner and made her thoughts about everyone else’s running abilities known. As Vance was just beginning to fall in love with running, Ekow suggested we try running together to which Vance declined. Though after enough practice, he mustered up enough strength to join me around the lake. We bonded over his surprisingly good running form and love of sports and wine. Over the following months, Vance created running challenges, planned dinners and any other excuse he could to hang out with me. One day after a run, I let Vance know I would be taking my talents to Mexico City. To my surprise, he was very upset. Who would he run with? Who would share his magnum bottles of Brown Estate wine with him? Who would join him for Marcus Samuelson’s cooking class?? He decided it was time to make a move.

Gabby and I met at some point in like 2019 at Oakland Athletic Club, but Gabby didn’t remember me so let’s not talk about that time…El oh el Gabby and I met (again) in May 2020 at Lake Merritt in Oakland. My roommate, Ekow, and I went out to meet up with Ekow’s friends for a lake hang. This was during the beginning stages of COVID, so Ekow and I were actually following social distancing rules, while Gabby and some other folks were playing Uno and other games. There were a lot of people running around the lake on this particular day. Some…did not have the greatest form. Everytime someone with not so great form ran past us, Gabby would comment something like “They’re gonna hurt their knees with that form!” or “Jeez, their form is awful, they need to swing their arms!” Unbeknownst to Gabby, I had gotten back into running when the pandemic started, so Ekow suggested that Gabby and I run together. In my mind, I was thinking, “Hell no I’m not going running with Gabby. She’s just gonna make fun of my form the whole time!” Eventually, I mustered up the courage to invite Gabby on a run around the lake. Comedic sidenote: I normally listen to music when I’m running. I don’t wanna hear nothing else but rap, amapiano, and occasionally rock music. But the first time I ran with Gabby, I didn’t know if she was a talking runner, so I didn’t play any music for the whole 5K and ran in silence. At the end of the run, Gabby asked what I listened to, and I said nothing because I didn’t know if she was going to talk or anything like that, and she laughed very loudly and said she was listening to Janet Jackson the whole time. After a few runs around Lake Merritt and a few post run conversations, I started realizing that I liked Gabby. Naturally, I started looking for excuses to spend more time with her. At first I started walking her back to her apartment (which was in the opposite direction from mine). Then, I started inviting her to picnic celebrations at the lake after we finished one of our Nike Run Club monthly running challenges. Eventually, I started inviting her over to enjoy a bottle of Brown Estate wine (I was a member at the time) and watch sports. Around August 2020, I went back east to help my Mom move from our home outside of Philly to her new home in DC. During my time back east, I’d text Gabby all the time, mostly about basketball and the occasional pop culture viral topic, but she’d always stop texting me at night, so I was positive she didn’t like me (turns out she was just going to sleep early). I returned to Oakland in October 2020. I picked things back up with the running and attempts to hang out, but I was 90% sure I was in the friend zone. In early November, Gabby told me she was moving to Mexico City at the beginning of the new year for 6 months. I was devastated. At this point in the pandemic, Gabby was the person in Oakland who I hung out with the most AND I really liked her. I knew I had to make a move before she left so I could know for sure if there was any potential for something more. The night I finally made a move was a historic night - the night of the Gucci v. Jeezy Verzuz. We did an online cooking class with Marcus Samuelsson earlier in the evening and opened up the magnum of Brown Estate’s Chaos Theory. As the tension was rising in the Verzuz, the romantic tension was rising in my apartment. At some point, shortly after “And Then What,” I decided it was time to make a move. To my delight, my kiss was returned, and the rest is history!

Vance and I have a shared note where we write down our travels and other events that we need to be available for. On June 10th I knew I had to be available for one of his friends wives birthday dinners in Napa. Per usual, Vance suggested we go up early to do some wine tasting before the dinner. We hopped in the car and started towards Napa, specifically Round Pond. When we got there, we checked in with the host (which, in hindsight, was not really a check in, the host barely looked down at her computer!) and headed out for a tour of the vineyard. The host guided us between vines that were “the best place to take a picture”. As I handed her my coat Vance got down on one knee and popped the question. Afterwards she escorted us to the garden area where Vance had set up a “picnic” for us: there were flowers, pictures of us and lots of wine!! We sat down and started our “tasting” (I barely remember anything because of the excitement). I started calling family and friends to share the news just to be met with unanswered FaceTimes and voicemails. Oh well, everyone must be busy! Of course my mom answered and suggested we stop by their house on our way home for a celebratory glass of champagne. After about an hour, Vance demands we leave the winery and head to my parents house. Confused, but I went along with it. We pull up to my parents house and the first thing I notice are BOTTLES of wine, charcuterie boards and a flower wall. Who’s drinking all of this wine? Who’s eating all of this food (if you know my parents, you know it’s not them)? I keep walking towards the backyard and am immediately surprised by so many of my and Vance’s good friends from EVERYWHERE. New York, Boston, Philly, etc. He’s a good man, Savannah.

I knew the ideal proposal would be private between the two of us (ideally at a vineyard in Napa) and celebrating with her parents at their home. I didn’t know if we would do a big reception so I knew this would be an opportunity to get a bunch of our friends together to celebrate. I went into planning mode right around when I bought the ring in April (shout out to Erika Hines for helping!). To throw Gabby off the scent, I sent a fake calendar invite on June 10th for a bday dinner for one of our good friends (thanks Tobby and Melinda!). The dinner was in Napa, so of course we’d do some wine tasting before, right? To find the right vineyard, I went up to Napa on a weekend when Gabby was out of town. I made a critical error and didn’t turn off my location sharing. I thought Gabby wouldn’t know that I was checking about a bunch of vineyards to see if they’d be a good spot for the proposal. Yet, when I picked her up from the airport on Sunday, one of her first questions was, “Who were you in Napa with?!” Facepalm. I vowed then and there to make sure the rest of my planning would go under the radar. I eventually found the perfect vineyard for the proposal - Round Pond Estate. I booked a private tasting in their garden area. I also sent an email to Gabby and I’s closest friends to let them know I was proposing on June 10th and that they were invited to the surprise proposal celebration afterwards at Gabby’s parents’ house. To my surprise, our friends as far away as New York, Boston, and Philly were so happy to be invited and said they’d fly to the Bay to be there for it. The week before, I sent an email to everyone to make sure they turn off their location sharing, as Gabby has almost all of her friends’ locations on her phone. As I said before, had to make sure things stayed under the radar. When the weekend came, I was so nervous that something would go wrong given folks were out and about on Friday night. Luckily, Gabby came right home after a dinner with her friends. The morning of the proposal, Gabby was having a hard time finding the right outfit. At one point she said, “Well, it’s not like it’s my event so I don’t have to worry about pictures.” I tried to lightly suggest that she should take her time. Luckily, she looked great regardless. Once we got in the car, I knew I was in the clear. When we got to Round Pond, I checked in at the front desk and the events manager I had been planning with quickly handed us two glasses of wine and asked us if we wanted to do a quick tour of the property. We walked down one row of vines and she suggested we take a picture (just like we talked about). I handed her my phone and then started fumbling around to get the ring box out of my jacket (Gabby this whole time was posing for the photo). I then got down on my knees and proposed. Gabby was so shocked, she started jumping up and down. She was so excited I had to essentially ask her again! On the second ask, she said yes. We then went back to our private tasting area where flowers and pictures were set up (thanks Kai and Pita!). We had an engraved bottle commemorating the proposal and had an hour of wine tasting. Both of us were calling friends and family to let them know the good news. Gabby kept getting upset that some of her friends weren’t answering (if only she had a little patience!). I eventually rushed us out of there so we could get to her parents house at a reasonable time. Gabby’s parents, Hal and Etienne, quickly welcomed us in to have some champagne. When we got in, Gabby noticed there was A LOT of wine, food (including charcuterie which is odd given her parents are pescatarian), and a massive photobooth decoration that said ‘Engaged!’ Hal walked her outside to the backyard area. Everyone ran out and screamed, “Surprise!” DJ 5000 Watts dropped “Int’l Players Anthem” at the perfect time. Gabby dropped to the grass and started crying as she saw how many of her friends and family were there to celebrate.