Our story starts in an office building in Arlington, Virginia...
In the Fall of 2011, after graduating from UVA, Briana was starting work as a Product Manager at APT, a software company outside Washington, DC. She was joining an existing team of four, and one of them, a scruffy, sweater-wearing, Duke grad named Scott, was assigned to act as her “buddy.” We’d love to tell you that it was love at first sight and that “the rest is history,” but in this case our journey took a slightly more interesting path.
AN EXTENDED COURTSHIP
What actually initially transpired was a two-and-a-half year period of being friends, working closely together, and…a handful of instances of beer-induced concert makeouts that through silent agreement were never spoken of again.
LET’S SEE WHERE THIS GOES
On an early Sunday morning in March 2014, we joined several of our APT teammates in running the St. Patrick’s Day 8K race. Afterwards we got brunch with the team (where the two of us split a bottle of champagne), then met up with Briana’s brother Kevin to watch the UVA basketball game at a bar, and eventually ended up with friends at our favorite beer garden in DC, The Standard.
At some point in the night, the two of us found ourselves by the bar in the midst of a serious conversation. Briana wanted to know what the deal was and why we hadn’t given this thing a real shot. Scott pointed out the reality that most relationships fail (always a romantic) and that both of us could suffer from potential fallout at work if things didn’t work out. But we both knew the connection was too strong to ignore. We were excited and cautiously optimistic, and we agreed in that moment we needed to see where this thing might take us.
FIVE YEARS OF ADVENTURES
With the solid friendship providing a head start, our relationship progressed quickly and we’ve been fortunate to share some incredible adventures over the last five years. We lived together and drove to work together—though Briana insisted on being dropped off two blocks away from the office for appearances sake. We moved across the country to San Francisco, visited South Africa, Egypt, China, Japan, and other destinations together. We’ve traveled 46,000 miles to attend 22 weddings together (We’ve tracked lots of random data together…).
We’ve been to countless baseball games together (One of Scott’s favorite exchanges was when he mused “what if you hadn’t liked baseball?” Briana quickly responded “what if YOU hadn’t liked baseball?”). We’ve partnered through job changes, moves, and graduate school. We’ve exchanged pillow talk on mutually thrilling topics like “analytics,” “product strategy,” and “a quality user experience.” Through it all, our relationship and partnership continued to deepen. We became best friends, ready to support each other through these types of experiences and more.
MANY MORE TO COME
In November 2018 an uncharacteristic haze hung over the city of San Francisco--smoke from the wildfire to the north. Despite the conditions, Scott was insistent that we keep our plan to have wine and cheese at sunset in Bernal Heights Park on Saturday, the 17th. The calendar appointment had been subtly scheduled weeks before, but then (perhaps suspiciously) required to be moved a couple times. Briana woke up with a hangover, but had a nagging feeling that she needed to power through.
We had brunch at our local Precita Park Cafe, shopped for all of our Thanksgiving supplies, and then trekked up the hill to the park. Briana commented that we seemed to be the only people on the hill not wearing protective face masks, but nevertheless we carried on. After enjoying the first glass of wine, Scott told Briana he needed to ask her a question. Fighting the nerves, he delivered a well-thought-out proposal—none of which Briana remembers (proposal blackout)—and she said yes!
We are so excited to be continuing our journey together, very shocked if you committed and made it all the way to the end of this story, and thrilled to have our friends and family join us to celebrate in wine country!
