How We Met
We met when I was 18 and Cody was 19! I had just graduated and left my hometown of El Dorado Hills, CA to start my Freshman year at Biola University (La Mirada, CA) — and he was in his second year at Fresno State University. One of my best friends from high school, Shannan Rowe, went to Fresno State and met/became best friends with Cody. She says that she noticed how much our personalities were alike and we had the same sense of humor. When I was visiting Shannan in Fresno, she introduced me to Cody and the rest is history. We began dating in October 2010.
We have been together 5 1/2 years now, long distance the entire time. We have grown a ton together and stuck by each others sides through so many tough times. Everyone always asks us how we make it work with the long distance, and it is easier than you think. It’s simple. We love each other. We would rather have each other and be hundreds of miles apart, instead of not having one another at all. Our relationship required more trust and prioritizing than most couples ever have to experience. But the hundreds of nights and morning on Skype, were worth it. We have such a strong love and friendship.
how they asked
The weekend of February 20th Cody and I decided to use my Christmas present from him, which was a weekend vacation at the Portola Resort and Spa in Monterey Biay, CA. I currently work in the Sacramento area and Cody is finishing up Law School in Tucson, AZ at the U of A. So he flew to me, and then we drove to the hotel together. We spent the morning eating and shopping around on the pier, like we normally would do on our little vacations. Cody mentioned that he wanted to take me to this beach in Big Sur that he saw was amazing online and was the perfect spot to watch the sunset. So we jumped in the car and drove the 45 minutes through Carmel, to Big Sur. It was the most BEAUTIFUL drive. When we arrived there was a long line of cars trying to get into the tiny and full parking lot for Pfeiffer Beach. The front gate was not letting anyone else in and everyone was just looping back around and exiting. Cody then pulled over the car outside the entrance and said he “had to go to the bathroom”. Little did I know that he ran to remind the front gate guy that he was the one planning on proposing to his girlfriend, because apparently our photographer gave him a heads up to let us in. We then pulled back into the entrance and quickly parked. While we were walking on beach I noticed that there were tons of photographers everywhere just taking pictures of the beautiful water, rocks, and sunset — so I didn’t even question why we set up our blanket so close to specific one. I had no idea that Cody had hired her and she was waiting there for us! Before I knew it Cody reached out for my hand and got down on one knee! He said he wanted to spend the rest of our lives together and asked me to marry him!!!! There was just so much adrenaline and excitement we don’t even remember what my answer was. I got instant happy tears. I’m so happy that we will forever have pictures to relive the best day ever… Soon to be Mr. & Mrs. Winchester!!
FUN LITTLE FACT of our proposal: Prior to us moving around to go take more pictures with our amazing photographer, we noticed that one of the couples that was cheering and congratulating us, was Anne Hathaway and her husband Adam! They were so sweet. As if our day could get any more exciting!
