Jackie: I first met Keenan when we were still in high school. We were both competing for the Presidential Scholarship at California Lutheran University (CLU). During a dinner social, I introduced myself to this quiet guy near me. I didn't catch his name at first and had to have him repeat his name twice. When he told me he was from Poway I said “Oh that is an interesting name for a city.” He waited a moment before very seriously saying “No, it’s not.” Then he didn’t say anything else. I walked away thinking this guy thought I was a total ditz. We did not talk to each other for the rest of the scholarship interviews. Actually we did not talk much at all our freshman year. However, we had a few mutual friends, and I came to learn that Keenan was one of the most intelligent, kind, and sincere people at CLU, albeit a bit reserved. Keenan: I admit that I do not remember the first time that I met Jackie (and no, Jackie will never let me forget it). I do remember seeing Jackie in our Honors "At Home in the Universe" class. I always thought Jackie was super intelligent, beautiful, and way out of my league. It would take me four years to get up the courage to ask her out.

Keenan: I left the honors program at CLU after my first semester to focus on research and my major. Unfortunately, that meant that Jackie and I did not share many classes after our first year. But I would see her walking across campus or at the Centrum now and again, and I always thought "she sure is awesome" when I saw her. I don't make decisions very easily (I'm sure this SHOCKS most of you), but I finally decided I had to ask out this amazing woman at the end of our last winter break at CLU in 2013. Jackie: Keenan and I started talking to each other more and more our senior year because, for the first time since freshman year, we had a class together. He made a point to talk with me at the senior social events and we started texting regularly, keeping in touch over the month-long winter break. I came back to Cal Lutheran before classes started to fly to Minnesota and to take a road trip back to CLU with Amanda Chial (one of my bridesmaids). On January 12th, 2013 I was super sick and had pushed myself to my limit by going to Disneyland the previous day. I woke up late in the afternoon to a text from Keenan. He was asking if I would go on a "real date" with him that night if he drove back to Thousand Oaks! I said “Yes!” and hoped I had not responded too late. He texted back saying that he had already left for Thousand Oaks, hoping that I would say yes. During our date I kept coughing and sneezing, culminating in a prolonged coughing-attack in a silent movie theater while we tried to watch The Hobbit. Keenan did not seem at all grossed out and asked if I needed water or tissues. He was so sweet, and we both had a good time despite what a mess I was. Little did I know that our wedding would be six years to the day from that very night.

Jackie: I knew Keenan and I had something special early on in our relationship. We spent as much time together as possible. Even though we were both very busy working, taking our last few classes, deciding where to go to grad school, and enjoying our senior year with our friends, we always made time for each other. We would make each other dinner, share our favorite movies and TV shows, and just talk for hours. On one lunch date at Smashburger we stayed there so long that the dinner rush came and went. I felt truly valued by Keenan. He always wanted to know what I thought and why. He knew my faults and did not judge me for them. He was interested in my hobbies even when they were very different from his. He always wanted to know more about me, and he was always truthful with me too. I knew he was a very private person so I felt so special that he would let his guard down around me. Keenan is a wonderful person, and I knew he was the one when I realized that being with him made me a better person. Keenan: I don't remember when it started, but I knew pretty early on that I was falling for Jackie. She was (and still is) so funny, charming, and kind. I did not believe in love at the time, but I had never felt this way about anyone before. I started to wonder if what I was feeling was actually that crazy little thing called love. One night after a stay-in movie date, I decided to tell her how I felt about her. But I struggled to find the words to describe how I felt about her. How did I explain how she brightened every room she walked into? How did I describe the bottomless happiness I felt when she smiled at me? While I searched for those words, Jackie blurted out that she loved me. I was shocked. She loved me?? I can truly say that I have never been so happy in my life. And that was when I knew we would always be together.

Keenan: After graduating from CLU, I moved to Eugene, Oregon and Jackie moved to Riverside, California for graduate school. I will not lie. Being apart from Jackie was awful. But when we did see each other, we always had an amazing time: touring Temecula wine country, visiting Crater Lake, adventuring in British Columbia, Canada... this list goes on and on! Despite the distance, our relationship grew stronger with each passing day. Jackie: Being apart while in grad school was very difficult, especially because of the less than ideal situation I was in at UC Riverside. Keenan kept me sane during those two years and our weekend adventures were the high point of my month. After getting my masters, I transferred to UC Davis in 2015. Moving to Davis in Northern California put us in driving distance of each other, and we were able to see each other more often. Although driving 7 hours was not ideal, it was wonderful not to have to rely on planes and to have more flexibility in our travel schedules. The distance was never convenient, but our relationship was always worth the effort.

Keenan: Jackie said I wouldn’t be able to surprise her (she is quite the little detective), but I did! I asked Jackie “the big question” in the San Francisco airport as we were waiting for our flight to New Orleans, where we were headed to sightsee, eat/drink our way through the South, and introduce Jackie to my southern family. In our 5 years together, we have lived apart for most of our relationship, having to travel extensively to see each other. This was our first big trip together, and the San Francisco airport was a place where we had spent a lot of time during our travels to see each other. In my mind, this made the airport the perfect place to propose and to ask Jackie if she would join me on “our greatest adventure.” Jackie: I will admit that Keenan completely surprised me when he proposed at SFO on Christmas day. I was a bit nervous to meet his southern family, but I was mostly excited for all the fun activities we had planned. It was early in the morning as we waited at our gate to board our flight to New Orleans. I had just finished eating breakfast (which Keenan later told me was agonizing to wait for me to finish) when he causally took my tea out of my hand, set it to the side, and got down on one knee. I started saying yes before he even finished his short speech. People in the terminal stopped to watch, applauded when we kissed, and a stranger even gave us a bottle of champagne to congratulate us. I was so overwhelmed I don’t remember everything Keenan said, but I do remember that he asked me to join him for our greatest adventure together: marriage. And we are so excited that our guests can join us at the start of that greatest adventure on our wedding day!