we're getting married!

Melissa and Blaine met during her first week of college at Caltech. Melissa's very first impression of Blaine was him arriving last-minute to a formal dinner, sliding into the seat next to her wearing a cowboy hat and a bolo tie, and thinking 'Who is this guy?' She tried to mess with him by joking about growing up in “a log cabin” in Kansas. This went entirely over Blaine’s head, as he had grown up in a log cabin in Montana. Their communication skills have slowly improved.

10 years and 22 days after meeting for the first time (which is pretty cool since Melissa's birthday is 10/22), Melissa and Blaine were in Hawaii taking a much-needed vacation. Blaine wanted the proposal to be a surprise, but he was sure Melissa would be expecting it. On their first day in Waimea, he asked a housesitting friend (hi Dan!) to pretend that the ring had just been delivered to their house in Berkeley! Blaine assured Melissa that it would still be possible to get it to Hawaii before they had to leave. Later that night, they were taking sunset pictures on the beach. Blaine pretended to be setting up a timed photo of them walking away from the camera and into the sunset. Melissa was standing there with her hand outstretched for what felt like way too long. She finally turned around to see what was going on and Blaine was down on one knee, ring in hand. Melissa was shocked and speechless, but she finally said 'YES!’ We can't wait to celebrate with you! See you in Montana!