Our Story

Her side of the story

I remember the first day I met Austin. It was the summer of 2015, he was wearing a sweatshirt, skinny jeans, and vans when it was like 90 degrees outside. He was a brand new hire at the software company I worked at and I could tell he was a tad bit nervous because it was his first day. In order to make him feel right at home, I went ahead and hooked up his computer. I remember he was excited to work with me because he insisted on setting up his workstation right behind my desk. After getting his desk together I remember he sat down and said, “Just to let you know, we are going to have to have an open fart policy. I fart a lot and I don’t want to hear it from you.” Part of me was pissed because I wasn’t in the mood to smell his farts all day but the other part of me was happy to finally have someone in the office who wasn’t afraid to be themselves and speak candidly.

His side of the story

When I first met Danielle, I was actually coming out of an interview and the manager was introducing me to everyone. When that happens for sure you are being hired, so I was riding high shaking people's hands.

They lead me to this small back room where the designers and programmers were chained to their desks. Right when I opened the door and turned the corner, my heart dropped.

I just stood there in shock as Danielle introduced herself. I muttered some nonsense back, casually waving at her. It felt like the air was sucked out of the room.

I instantly fell for her. I've never felt that taken back by a moment in my life.

She was the most beautiful, kind, shy, and genuine woman I've ever met, and felt that from the moment we spoke.

After leaving the interview, I could care less about anything. Sure landing a job was big but I could not stop thinking about her the rest of the weekend until Monday came around.

When first walked into my new office, I found out I would be sitting in the same room as Danielle. I insisted my desk be near the window right behind her. I was really nervous talking to her at first but turned on the humor quickly to mask it.

Over the first week, we had become near-instant best friends, her not knowing I was head over heels for her of course. We started making shared playlists on Spotify, going during lunch to get coffee together, and laughing at each other’s jokes all day.

Yet It took me so long to figure out she was super into me as well ;)

Her side of the story

It was late winter of 2020 and I had been craving to go on a trip, after being cooped up for so long. At the time, we were 6 months pregnant and we missed having a bit of adventure in our life. We knew once the baby was here it would be hard to travel so we insisted on going on a quick trip before she arrived. We decided on Topanga, right outside of Malibu in California because it had plenty of spots to go hiking and we really wanted to see the mountains. After arriving at our adorable airbnb, we quickly got ready to go hiking because we couldn’t wait to start exploring. As we were about to leave, I thought, oh my gosh, we’re about to go on this really amazing hike. What if he asks me to marry him? I should definitely put on makeup. But before I could start to put makeup on, Austin rushes me to go and I start to think… naaah…. He wouldn’t ask me to marry him if I didn’t have makeup on. He would be thoughtful to know that would embarrass me. So I got excited about having a simple hike during sunset and I didn’t think again about it. On the way up to the mountain, I was stunned by the view and couldn’t help but take a million pictures and videos. I could tell after a while this started to annoy Austin because he insisted we keep moving. During the hike, he explained the sun was about to set and he really wanted me to see the view from the top. So once again I didn’t think anything of it and kept moving. After a very lengthy hike and walking some very sketchy trails we made it to the near top, I looked at the steep hike and thought, “There is no way I am hiking up to the top! I’m 6 months pregnant. This would require me to use my hands.” So I told Austin no but he convinced me it would be ok if he would push me up the rest of the way and so he did. By the time I had got to the top, my adrenaline was rushing and my hands were shaking. Part of me was excited and the other part of me was terrified. As I was taking in the view and trying to catch my breath. I look over and Austin pulls me in. I don’t remember what he said but I remember it was something along the lines that he was sorry this part took so long. Next thing I remember he was on his knee. I couldn’t believe he had finally asked me and it took a minute to process what was happening. I was excited and terrified that all this was happening on a very scary platform on top of a mountain. Austin always likes to keep me on my toes and always goes above and beyond in everything he does. I should have guessed this moment wouldn’t have been anything but less.

His side of the story

We found out Danielle was pregnant mid-2020 and every day after I felt more in love with her than the last. I was wildly ecstatic to start a family and that we were having a girl. There was only one problem, we weren’t married yet! I knew at that moment the clock was ticking and I needed to finally ask her to marry me.

We found a house for our new family and I was desperately trying to find a ring online. Danielle has always talked about jewelry, fashion, and different styles, so I knew I wanted to get her a 1920’s inspired ring. After some time I finally found a beautiful custom ring online made in North Carolina.

After ordering, It was going to take some time to create the ring so it didn’t ship for like 2 months. Around that time Danielle had been saying she wanted to go back to the west coast. So we booked a trip to a spot in Cali with plenty of beautiful hiking spots.

Not two days before we left I was freaking out because the ring had not been shipped to my friend's house yet. I made a split decision to overnight an amazon ring that was clearly fake. Luckily the next day both of the rings showed up at the exact same time and the next day we were flying out. So I ran to his house to “drop off the house keys” and pick up the ring.

The first day we were in Topanga, it was a gorgeous sunset at the AirBNB. So I just wanted to do it right then and made us rush to go hiking. We found this beautiful trail that led to a platform on the edge of a mountain.

I was so nervous I swear I was either going to drop the ring, or someone was going fall over the cliff. After freaking out the entire walk we had to scale this rock face that was like 6ft high. Which for a six-month pregnant woman was a huge feat.

Finally, we were there, at the top of this mountain looking out, the fog was rolling over the hills, and the view was breathtakingly gorgeous.

As I held Danielle in my arms soaking in the view, I didn’t want her to accidentally feel the ring in my pocket so I made some excuse to go set the GoPro down and hit record.

When I turned around I could see her smiling, camera rolling, and knew It was going to be the most absolutely perfect moment.