Our story

I'm Late, I'm Late, For a Very
Important Date

November 16, 2024

"After he sent me a like on Hinge, I looked at Jonny's profile and thought 'hmm.' Just kidding–Jonny had so much joy that I saw in his smile that I thought, yeah, I’d like to know why he’s so happy. We decided to meet for coffee at Sidekick in Woodinville. (Great first dates begin at Sidekick, iykyk). We enjoyed hearing about each other’s faith and love for Christ and the people in our lives. I remember leaving that first date thinking I’d like to know more about this guy, and if he asked me on a second date, I decided I would go!" — Emma

"I'll be honest, I never wanted to find the love of my life on Hinge or any online dating app for that matter. I'd been on and off of Hinge for the better part of 4 years with very little success and was pretty discouraged by the whole process. I don't like back-and-forth messaging before the first date, I think it's a terrible way to get to know each other so I think Emma and I exchanged maybe 3 or 4 texts before I asked her out for coffee. She looked cute, athletic, and had an Australian Shepherd -- which I kid you not was my dream dog to match with my golden retriever, Koda. The story goes that I almost decided not to go on our first date because I was pretty slammed at work and already had a church commitment that day (wouldn't that have been a massive mistake). I eventually convinced myself to go, only to pull around the corner at Sidekick 2 minutes before 10am, but not able to find parking ANYWHERE. I circled for a little bit and then, after about 5 minutes, texted Emma that I was struggling to find parking and was going to be late. 15 minutes after 10am I found parking -- so, yeah, I was 15 minutes late to our first date. We talked for close to 3 hours before Emma had to leave for a birthday party, but I remember what cut through so clearly for me was the love of the Lord that she so clearly had -- she shared a bit of her story with me on that date and I remember being enamored with it. Something was different about this girl -- it just felt like she was someone special." — Jonny

Soooooo...what are we?

January - May 2025

"A few months later, he asked me to be his girlfriend and I said yes! There have been many more dates. Jonny and I have explored the Seattle restaurant scene, hiked in some beautiful spots, and he introduced me to pickleball! That’s been one of our consistent outings. If you ever want to play with us, please let us know! Jonny’s dog Koda and my dog Huey are thick as thieves–Huey gets so excited when I ask him if he wants to go see Jonny and Koda. We’ve met each other’s friends and family. We’re so lucky to know each and every one of you." — Emma

"We went on a few dates before Christmas and then I went home for 2 weeks for the Holidays. We texted back and forth the entire time and sent more memes and iMessage stickers to each other than I've ever sent to any other person in my life. I knew one thing: When I came back to Seattle I wanted to ask her to be my girlfriend. I shot my shot on my first date back in Washington aaaaannndd...she said 'wait'. Ok, great. I can wait...but how long? I really had no feel for how long she needed until I should try again. Ball in her court, right? We went on a bunch of dates throughout January including a couple Seattle Kraken games and some Friday night game nights at Stephen and Vicki's. By February, I was ready to try again. At a Super Bowl party that I hosted at my house in early February, I tried again. 'Soooooo...what are we?' I asked. She eventually said, 'If you wanna ask me to be your girlfriend, you're going to have to do that.' So, I did. The next few months were filled with more awesome dates, more Kraken games, Mariners games, a weekend trip to Micah and Malea's in Vancouver, WA, and a weekend trip to Aunt Julie's in Oregon. By March I was in love, and by May we both knew that we loved each other." — Jonny

Texas BBQ &
Texas Weddings

June 2025

"The rest of the summer was full of pickleball and traveling to meet Jonny’s friends in Texas for a wedding. I love barbecue-and I have to say Texas does it quite well. The only thing that’s missing is the White BBQ Sauce. On this trip, I felt like Jonny showed me that he cared about me in both big moments and small ones. He’s consistent in how he treats me everyday-just showing me that he cares about me and likes to make me laugh. Jonny’s friends also made me feel so seen and loved. Overall, it was a great trip, although I do not miss the South’s summer humidity. And yes, Mackenzie challenged me to be open to talking about forever. I think there’s always a little bit of risk with love, but the reward can be so much greater." — Emma

"A wedding in Dallas, Texas in June was the perfect opportunity for Emma to meet a bunch of my close friends from college. The wedding was for a member of the Baptist Student Ministry in college (where I had spent a lot of my time) and a ton of my close friends from that time in my life were going to be there. On top of that, one of my groomsmen, Seth, had moved to Dallas after college with his wife, so it was a chance for him to meet Emma too. Before we left for the trip, I knew we needed a rental while we were there. Emma had mentioned to me that she loves Porsches so I decided to splurge a little bit on our rental and got a Porsche Boxster that the two of us could drive with the roof up around Dallas. I surprised her with the car shortly after we landed and I could see in her eyes that she felt loved by that gesture. The rest of that weekend was filled with good food and good friends. We tried two different BBQ joints while we were there, including Goldee's, one of the best BBQ joints in the U.S. (and yes, it really lived up to its hype), we went to the Stockyards in Fort Worth, and we danced the night away at the McGees' wedding reception. I can distinctly remember that night because I saw Emma feel so quickly accepted by my friends and her level of comfort skyrocketing as a result. She was running around taking 0.5 zooms with my friends and was just comfortable dancing and having a good time. Dallas was also the start of what I would call 'the serious phase of our relationship.' One thing about Seth's wife, Mackenzie, is that she isn't afraid to ask direct questions. She asked us if we had talked about marriage yet and started poking at more serious topics that I was too afraid to broach until then. But seeing Emma respond to those questions told me that the ice was now broken. It had opened up the more serious conversations for us, and we carried those conversations on through our future trips." — Jonny

Roughin' it in Alaska

July 2025

"This was a fun trip! This was the first 'big' vacation we took together. We learned a lot about each other on this trip. I learned that Jonny travels well–he should take me on more vacations :P. All jokes aside, even when things didn’t quite work out the way we thought, or when we were tired (or stinky), Jonny made every part of this trip enjoyable. He is adventurous, patient, and easy-going! He’s like this on regular days too, someone who I want to spend the rest of my life with." — Emma

"Man, Alaska was an exciting, wild, adventurous trip for us! This was really our first trip alone as a couple and from the get-go I think we both learned something that we both love about each other: we go with the flow on trips. Now, that's not to say that we don't plan things out when we travel, but I think we both saw the flexible side to each other on this trip. If plans change or schedules shift, we're both gonna figure it out and we're gonna have a good time doing that together. We got to kick the trip off in Juneau the day before the 4th of July where I remember having a serious conversation about our future together in a Juneau coffee shop. We took a ferry up to Skagway and stayed with her brother, Dayton, out in quite literally the middle of nowhere. That is by far the most I've 'roughed it' in my life ever. Potable water was shipped in, food was shipped in, and we basically had no way to shower while we were over there. The mosquitoes were also HORRIBLE! In spite of that, this was quite possibly one of the most special trips that we had together. We got to spend so much time together out in nature, talking, in one of the prettiest places I've been to. We ate wild strawberries by the beach and watched whales come up out of the water. We canoed to a glacier to get up-close-and-personal with Dave (Davidson glacier). We took a skiff into town and sang karaoke at a bar in Haines, Alaska. It was awesome and that's a trip I'll remember for the rest of my life." — Jonny

Weddings, Birthdays, &
Halloween Parties

August 2025 - January 2026

"The next 6 months after Alaska were filled with more weddings, celebrating Emma's birthday and hosting a Halloween party at my house as a couple. It continued to show me how strong we are as a couple and showed me how much Emma truly pushes me to see those around me more and include them. Over those months, we kept talking about marriage more and more. On our 1-year anniversary, we went out to Il Nido on Alki beach. I had texted Emma earlier that day that 'we might go on a walk after dinner.' I told her to bring a coat just because it was cold outside. In my head, I thought it might be nice to go out and see the Seattle skyline, but after sending that text I realized that, given that this was our 1-year anniversary dinner, that sounded a heck of a lot like a potential proposal. I jokingly asked Emma at dinner if she thought that I might propose tonight after I had sent that text. She told me that she'd thought for a second that that might be the case, and that, while we hadn't gone ring shopping yet so she wouldn't have been thrilled with not being involved in picking out the ring, she would have said 'yes.' That turned a massive corner for me. That was the first time she had ever said that to me and that told me everything I needed to know. I was ready to take the next step towards marriage and she was too." — Jonny

Will you marry me?

February 21, 2026

"I WAS SUSPICIOUS. Alissa definitely steered my suspicions away, and I ended up being super surprised! When we got to the proposal spot, Jonny asked me if I wanted to join him to go down to the lake to look at the view. I said, 'nah, I’m good.' (Sorry, I was ready to go to lunch.) I did go down with him though, where he brought out a journal he made about us. The closing line on his proposal speech was “I was late to our first date, but I’m not going to be late in proposing to you." — Emma

"I WAS NERVOUS. I was fairly confident that she was going to say yes, so I wasn't necessarily nervous about her saying 'no,' but I knew this was a big step and I wanted to do my best at keeping it a secret all the way up to the moment where I got down on one knee. I had planned with Emma back in mid-January to go snowshoe hiking on February 21st for my 'birthday.' I knew that was the day that I wanted to propose. Emma was definitely getting more suspicious as the day approached but Alissa had told me that she was pretty confident that she convinced Emma the engagement wouldn't be for a while. The day before the proposal, I stayed up until 3am writing my proposal speech down in a scrapbook for the two of us where I attached a bunch of pictures of memories from our relationship. When the morning came, Emma got to my house about 10:30, we spent some time talking and eating some banana cinnamon rolls, and then started making our way over to Gold Creek Pond where I was going to propose. We got to the pass around 2:00 and started the short hike around the lake. What I love about the hike was I got to see the aspects of Emma that I love the most: her sense for adventure, her playfulness, her intentionality. We stopped at one point to make a snowman 'just cause' and I absolutely loved that. As we neared the proposal spot, I asked Emma if she wanted to come down with me to see the view at the lake better. She told me 'No, I'm good. I'll just stay up here'. Whoops -- that wasn't supposed to happen. Now what? I thought quick on my feet and decided to walk all the way down by myself and then call her down once I got to the water. When I did that, she finally came down. I opened the note that I had written her and read it to her. 'This is exactly what you think it is,' I told her. I got down on one knee. And, just as I suspected, she said 'yes.'" — Jonny