Shalizeh's Version: September 2022 We swiped right, and after a few messages on birth order and its correlation to personality type, decided to meet. Labor Day 2022, we met for drinks at the Strand House in Manhattan Beach. Shalizeh planned to stay for one drink but she found Hiram to be warm, charming, and funny. They stayed and bonded over their love of food, traveling, friends and family. Specifically, they shared a love of Mexico City and its culinary offerings. Two days later they had dinner again and the rest was history. April 2023 Shalizeh & Hiram arrived in Mexico City with an itinerary full of site seeing and dinner reservations. Upon arrival, Shalizeh found the room filled with rose petals. Unbeknownst to her, Hiram had a surprise in the agenda. He pretended to be surprised by the gesture and pointed to the exceptional hospitality at the Andaz. Saturday, Shalizeh's suspicions grew when a bouquet arrived with a card that read "Flowerly Saturdays turn into Sparkling Sundays". They had reservations at the restaurant they had bonded over on Sunday - Masla Y Maiz. Maybe there would be a proposal? On April 22nd after a full day of site seeing and eating their way through the city, Hiram proposed. He completely surprised her (a day early)! The next day, they ate at their favorite restaurant over a celebratory drink with Masala Y Maiz' chef-owner. Hiram's Version: An end of summer final long weekend coastal sunset was befitting the start of our romance. Just enough banter with some unexpected hopeful eagerness unfolded through a series of Bumble message exchanges all culminating in a Strand House first date. Thirty minutes in, multiple sips into a glass of white wine (Shal prefers Red, as I later came to know), magic was happening and maybe some sparks were already flying? Between a mutual love of reggaeton, travel planning (down to itinerary building without taking away from impromptu exploration), and a mutual affinity for Mexico City (where I eventually proposed), this wasn’t just a coincidence. Two days later, a second date. Ten more right behind. Multiple walks on Redondo beach, bar trivia, making lists of the best pizza in LA, Shal’s Persian cooking prowess – all of which was just the beginning. Somewhere during that period, I dropped an early Saturday morning text : “Hey, do you want to go to Japan for the holidays?” What she didn’t know was I had already booked our flight at 5AM earlier that morning. But hey, it wasn’t really a tough sell because Tokyo was already on her bucket list. Many trips later, I was in full proposal planning, and before we knew it we were already in full wedding planning mode.