How We Met
Jake and I have known each other since we were 5 years old, but it wasn’t until senior year that we truly became friends. Jake says he fell in love with me during our AP Calculus class because of my laugh; for me, love didn’t come until much later. I decided to go to a 4-year university in Switzerland and Jake stayed behind at a local college in Oregon. It wasn’t until my second year of university during my winter break in Oregon that Jake told me he loved me for the first time. My response? “OH CRAP!” Followed by, “no no no no no no.” I wasn’t ready to fall in love with my best friend but that’s exactly what I did. 1 year later when I returned from college again, Jake and I started dating and two years after that we embarked on our greatest adventure.
After I graduated university in Switzerland and returned home to the States, Jake could tell something was missing and that I wasn’t happy. He knew I truly wanted to go live in South Africa (my favorite place in the world) but I’d never think of asking him to give up everything in Oregon and go with me so I stayed; that was until Jake told me he’d do whatever it took to get me back to South Africa and he’d come along. So he helped me start my own business and 3 months later we quit our 9-5 jobs, sold everything and took off to live in Cape Town, South Africa for 3 months as Digital Nomads.
how they asked
About one month into our incredible stay in Cape Town, we decided to climb up Lion’s Head. Little did I know that Jake had been carrying a wedding ring around with him in South Africa for months, waiting for the perfect time to pop the question. On our way up the mountain, I turned to him and said: “This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my entire life.” Jake said that was all the confirmation he needed so once we got to the top of the mountain, he asked and I was shocked. I knew he hardly had a cent to his name so the sacrifices he made to get that wedding ring were incredible.
Today we are still Digital Nomads, running our own businesses and traveling the world. We cannot wait for our ultimate adventure this August when we say “I do!”