Lauren and I met on our first day of college back in 2012. In need of tools to modify a dorm room bunkbed, Lauren hollered down the second-floor hallway, "Does anyone have a hammer?". Setting up my own dorm room and in possession of a hammer, I opened the door, looked Lauren in the eye and said, "I do." We ended up encountering each other several more times that week and became friends for reasons like enrolling in the same general ed health class and both being from Oregon. A genuine friendship followed that extended through our college years as actual common interests were discovered. With overlapping friend groups and a shared study abroad experience in England, we're grateful for the foundation of friendship and shared experiences that stem from those years.

Jacob and I had already been friends for seven years before we started dating. After spending college and the few years afterwards in California, we both found ourselves back in Oregon. During the spring of 2019, I was heading to Portland for a concert with friends and we needed a place to stay. Jacob gave up his bed for three girls to squeeze into while he slept on the couch. Over coffee, he told us stories about working for the Trail Blazers – like the time he couldn’t figure out how to lock Shabazz Napier’s Tesla after parking it for him or when Damian Lillard made fun of him for housing a PB&J in the locker room – and we told him stories about all the powder days we had during a record snow year. He offered us tickets to a game next time we were in town and I took him up on it. When my friends bailed last minute (see historic snow year), I went anyway. I kept finding reasons to come to Portland and he kept finding reasons to “happen to be" in Bend. We eventually said the quiet part out loud and agreed that our friendship had turned into something more.

On September 5 of last year, I picked up the ring that Lauren and I had designed together and put my proposal plan into action. That very night, we ordered takeout from our favorite sushi restaurant and drove to Mt. Tabor for a picnic dinner while watching the sun set over Portland’s West Hills. I tried to act as normal as possible despite the ring in my back pocket and the important question at the front of my mind. You’ll have to ask Lauren if I was truly able to keep it cool. When we finished eating, we chatted and walked to a higher vantage point. With daylight dwindling and our fellow sunset revelers dispersed, I got down on a knee and asked Lauren to marry me. The moment itself was a blur for me, but Lauren graciously confirmed that she said yes when I asked about it a few minutes later. We are incredibly grateful not only for each other, but also for the friends and family members that have shaped our lives separately and that now have supported us together. We can’t wait to celebrate our love with you in October!