We were in the process of planning a wedding for the summer of 2020, but we all know how that turned out... In it's place, we ended up doing a small COVID safe ceremony with immediate family in Yosemite on August 14th (Check out the photos from the ceremony below if you're curious!) Now that we're all vaccinated, we're kicking off our new plan of doing separate smaller receptions with the group of friends we were planning to bring on a Hawaii Bachelor/Bachelorette! If you haven't, please take a look at the itinerary and RSVP here; it's going to be epic!
It started how most modern day love stories start… that classic boy meets girl through phone app story. For us, it was Coffee Meets Bagel, and ironically, we actually had a coffee (Ethan) and bagel (Jessica) by pure coincidence. That night, we went salsa dancing and, knowing we didn’t want it to end, got ice cream afterwards and kept talking. The next night, Jessica went to a friend’s housewarming party and to her surprise, she ran into Ethan! Apparently, he was friends with the other housemate; small world! So even though we had met in person the day before, we could have met without the phone app the next day. It must have been fate!
Soon after the house party, Ethan invited Jessica for a weekend of adventure: scuba diving in Monterey. As Jessica could never refuse the chance to scuba dive, she gladly accepted. Ethan went above and beyond planning the entire trip. Not only did he carry her equipment as well as help to put on her fins as a properly trained divemaster (and gentleman) would do, he had hot chocolate, cheese, and crackers ready between every dive. By Sunday, we had done 6 dives together, and then we meandered down the 17-mile drive, watching the sunset over the ocean while we swapped stories from our past adventures. The next day, we went to an improv show and then ate burritos on Jessica’s roof while star gazing. That night, Ethan asked Jessica to be his girlfriend and she said YES!
A month into the relationship we knew we had found something special. Both of us had a shared passion for the outdoors, loved adventuring and creating new experiences, were very driven and cared about our family, but most importantly… we both had great credit scores. Just kidding! The most important thing was that we were both savvy travelers who loved packing in as many activities as we could. So when Ethan invited Jessica to join him on his weeklong trip to New Zealand 3 months into our relationship, we put together an action packed itinerary that included scuba diving the Poor Knights islands; exploring Hobbitton; ziplinging, luging, and wine tasting in Rotorua; kayaking in a canyon lined with glow worms, looking around in awe as the wall of the canyon blended in with the starry night sky; and every other activity we could cram in while driving over 1,000mi in a camper van. It was the best trip either of us had ever taken.
We had been boyfriend and girlfriend for 4 days when Ethan asked Jessica, “ Hey, want to learn how to skydive tomorrow? There’s a free class.” To which Jessica replied “Free? I'm in!” Jessica was a natural and we went on to compete in wind tunnel competitions shortly after. A few months later Ethan asked if Jessica wanted to do a 4-way team and compete in a national skydiving competition that would take place in Perris. However, since this was asked verbally Jessica heard “Paris” and thought, “Romantic trip to Paris, France? Sounds GREAT!” She would soon realize her mistake, but only 9 months after Jessica got her skydiving license and with 160 jumps under her belt, we did indeed go to the USPA Skydiving Nationals. Although we were the youngest competitors at nationals, and most other competitors had 1,000s of jumps, we took second place out of 40 teams in a nail biting finish!
In case you didn't know, Jessica is a hard one to surprise! That didn't deter Ethan who, after almost missing the boat and getting the ring stolen by a fish, pulled an oyster out of his pocket while Jessica was distracted by a sea turtle in a cave 100ft underwater. With a flurry of bubbles and affectionate head butting, she said YES!
With some of our best friends in the sport, we performed and filmed a "wedding" skydive in the Maldives to celebrate our love for each other. It was an amazing experience we will remember for the rest of our lives.
Before we embarked on the week long liveaboard in the Galapagos we booked for our honeymoon, we sought out all the land based animals we could find on Santa Cruz Island. What started as an afterthought turned out to be an incredible 3 day highlight of so many different animals it would be impossible to name them all.
This was the MOST AMAZING Dive trip we have ever taken. Going to Darwin and Wolf Islands has been a dream of ours and we feel extremely lucky that we were able to make it happen. The wildlife sightings were out of this world and we made such awesome friends!
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