Lizzie's story: Lizzie will not-so-humbly tell you that Zach's been interested in her since his senior year of high school, nearly fourteen years ago. She will also claim that everything started in the summer of 2015, when Zach was on Bainbridge for surgery. Undisputed facts: That summer Lizzie was living in Seattle and had just began her grueling ARNP program at Seattle U. They met up at the pub for a beer and made a plan to attend the Rotary Auction together. Zach's story: Zach will tell you that at the pub, Lizzie coyly asked to see his surgery scars, requiring him to lift up his shirt. Lizzie confessed to having had a series of discouraging app dates earlier that year and that he sensed her interest was piqued in someone she could have a laugh and a beer with and who would obligingly show her surgery scars (the weakness of an aspiring nurse practitioner). Undisputed facts: Lizzie, Megan, and Ade road tripped from Montreal to New York to see their friends Sarah and Flaam , which was coincidentally where Zach lived (or perhaps not so coincidentally). Zach happily toured Lizzie and her friends around New York, impressed by their stamina to walk miles upon miles each day. Zach's story: Zach will tell you that he was happy to spend time with Lizzie, meet her college friends, and take them around New York. He will also tell you that Lizzie's friends planted a seed in her after that trip, a seed of encouragement to consider Zach as more than a friend... Lizzie's story: Lizzie will tell you that two days before their first romantic encounter, after an evening at A.J.'s house enjoying some pre-Christmas festivities, Zach called Lizzie due to some car trouble though she didn't see the call until she was home. Undisputed facts: On the evening of Christmas Day, 2015, after Zach watched the end of It's a Wonderful Life at Lizzie's she agreed that a late night hot tub sounded like a splendid idea and the rest is history.

After getting married on August 8, 2020 we changed our names to Elizabeth Claire Zaroff and Zachariah Brewer Zaroff and are now proudly the Zaroff family. We acknowledge this may be non-traditional but felt strongly that we wanted to have a family name that reflects our values as well as our families' histories. Instead of expecting that Lizzie take Brewer, we wanted to find a name that we both felt could be our own as well as shared. We considered the Brewers, the Scotts, hyphenation, combination, or creating a new last name and ultimately agreed that we wanted a name that continued a family genealogy. After scouring family trees we landed on a variety of plausible options including Brewer, Scott, Kanthack, Zaroff, Polsfut, Riddell, Solomon, Ramsey, Krueger, Schooley, and Wing. Some we liked the sound of better (Zach liked the sound of Zach Kanthack, Lizzie thought it was too acky) while some have an interesting and robust history: there is a Schooley Road in Wenatchee, WA; Riddell Road in Tracyton, WA; Solomon's Castle in Ona, FL; the Ramsey House in Knox County, TN was built in 1797; the Brewers were living in Maryland in the 1790s. Obviously this gave us a lot to deliberate. What ended up leading us to choose Zaroff was the story of how it became Barb's (Zach's mom) last name. When her paternal grandfather emigrated from Ukraine his name was changed from Zaroff to Cohen at Ellis Island. When Barb and her sister, Ellen, discovered this in their twenties they changed from Cohen back to Zaroff. We recognize that most commonly in the U.S., in heterosexual marriages, the woman takes the man's last name and often that name is given to their children. We value both the unity a last name can bring to a family as well as the importance of preserving and celebrating ancestral surnames and though it may feel strange to you and us we are thrilled to commemorate this important life decision together.