Mary & Katie’s Story

It all started with a swipe right in the summer of 2019. For those of you that don't get it, we met online. To be clear, it was Mary who swiped first. Katie's many adventerous rock climbing and backpacking photos caught her eye. Mary's opening line was "so when are we going backpacking" and Katie replied with "how about our third date" and after a few chats, they agreed to meet for happy hour after work.

Their first date was supposed to be at the ultra-cool new rooftop for the now-closed Virgin hotel in San Francisco. Mary arrived a few minutes early and learned the rooftop was closed on Mondays. Frantically worrying about how she could pivot, she quickly saw the lobby bar out of the corner of her eye and thought, why not? After a few drinks, french fries, and a tequila shot with strangers, the first date was in the books.

Katie stayed true to her promise and although not on the third date, they did end up going on that backpacking trip about a month into knowing each other (Mary's first ever!). The start of many adventures to come.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Katie moved in with Mary in San Francisco and they started their year of road trips. Katie bought a new car and they managed to put over 15,000 miles, 100 plays of "seasons of love" on Spotify and finished 50 podcast episodes within the first 8 months (Utah, Wyoming, Minnesota, Texas and everywhere in between).

In June of 2021, they bought their first home in Oakland when Katie was already planning to propose. In October of 2021, Katie did propose in front of most of their siblings in their backyard.