The Proposal

Kevin surprised me with a spontaneous weekend trip to Santa Barbara. We spent the day riding bikes across town, walking on the beach and wine tasting. At sunset, Kevin took me to a secluded bluff overlooking the ocean. We could see the entire Santa Barbara coastline, lit beautiful shades of orange from the setting sun. We were surrounded by flowers and completely alone in our perfect spot. Kevin turned to me, took my hands and got down on one knee to propose. He asked me if I would spend the rest of my life having fun with him. I said "yes" a million times, through tears, of course. Kevin put a gorgeous diamond on my finger and we both went to dinner with riduculous smiles on our faces. We ate at Bucatini restaurant, where everyone congratulated us and asked how we met and how he proposed, etc..(we were grinning like idiots and taking pictures of the ring, so people figured out pretty quickly what was going on.) At dinner we exchanged stories about the events leading up to our engagement day. He told me how sneaky he was, and I told him how much I knew.
Kevin planned an incredible day and a perfect engagement. I couldn't have written it better myself.

Kevin and Kristen's Story

We met our freshman year of college at UC Irvine. What started out as "dorm love" quickly became true love and we've been inseparable ever since. We spent our college years having fun with friends, taking trips (to Santa Barbara and other fun spots- like Europe!) and sometimes we even studied! We discovered we have a million things in common, but the passion we both share for traveling became our focus after we graduated from college.

We decided to explore a new country and continent together. We moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina to become English teachers and travel throughout South America. We had an amazing year together exploring a different corner of the world and learning more about each other.

After Argentina, we decided to get started with a new life back in California. Kevin started working in finance at Schools First Federal Credit Union, while I became a high school English teacher at Northview High School. This new life worked well for about two years, but soon Kevin and I were hungry for new adventures. Instead of jetting off to another country again, we've decided to brave graduate school! Kevin will be going to law school and I will be working on an MFA in Creative Writing. Kevin hopes to practice law in the Orange County area and I am planning to someday combine my love of writing with my passion for teaching. Kevin and I are working together to acheive our individual dreams.

We feel incredibly lucky to have spent the past 7 years together and we're thrilled to be committing the rest of our lives to each other. We know there will be many more years of love and adventure to come.

We are starting a new feature today. A Joyeux Bride. Our first Bride is Kristen. Here is her story..