how we met
We met through an organization that is affiliated with our career goals — the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Sebastian was the former president of our university chapter and I wanted to fill the position for the following year. I asked if I could meet him up for coffee to discuss what the position entailed. We started talking and realized we were both training for a running race (half-marathon for me, ironman for him) so we decided we would casually go for a few runs together at some point in the near future. It was summer of 2013 and the days were long and hot in San Antonio, TX so Sebastian would ask me to join him for his evening runs after work. I just moved from Houston, TX and didn’t know a lot of people so I agreed. It was a fun way to also get to know the city since he knew all the ins and outs of the hip parts of inner-city San Antonio. After our runs, we would grab coffee or beer and sometimes dinner. He started to ask me to join him on other components of his training, like the swimming part. We would drive to a lake just outside of San Antonio on the weekends and swim and enjoy the last few weeks of summer. It was at this point where we knew there was a mutual interest but I knew he was moving in the next few weeks Sebastian was preparing to move to Austin, TX where he would pursue a Master of Science in geology from the University of Texas.
As the summer was ending, I thought it was just a summer ‘fling’ and didn’t want to tie him down on his new journey to another city. One day after a run, I hopped in his car and saw magazines advertising Big Bend National Park and West Texas. I expressed how I had always wanted to venture to that corner of Texas, but never made the time. He said “so let’s go? There’s still time.” I was so excited but a little nervous since we were barely anything more than friends so I convinced my sister and her boyfriend to join on a 4-day road trip to West Texas. There, we booked a teepee in El Cosmico in Marfa for a night or 2, camped in Big Bend for a night, hiked a 14-mile trek (which Sebastian got us lost for 2 miles) and just drove around bonding over the geology and enjoying the summer days. It was magical, to say the least. From then, West Texas has held our hearts and has been attributed to the birth of our relationship. We hold Marfa in the highest regard which makes our engagement all the better!
how they asked
The proposal was amazing! It was a supposed to be a couples retreat to Marfa, TX — a place very near and dear to our heart. My best friend and I wanted to take a little trip on Labor Day weekend to celebrate her 30th birthday and invite some friends that had never been to Marfa. We rented a really chic, beautiful adobe hut home to enjoy for the weekend. Little did I know, Sebastian and Diana had other plans.
We had dinner reservations at a place in town and karaoke was on the agenda afterward. Diana is typically very organized with her vacations so she had created an excel timesheet of activities so it was to no-ones surprise that the Saturday was planned out to the hour. It can be difficult to rally up 10 people on vacations so organization is a must. El Cosmico has karaoke night once a Saturday of every month and it just so happened that we were there on that Saturday. He thought it would be a perfect idea to propose to me to a Queen song because he is stuck in the 80’s and that is his favorite artist of all time. He emailed the staff at El Cosmico, sharing the idea of a karaoke proposal and they were on-board immediately. They even moved the karaoke an hour earlier so that we would get good sunlight for Anthony to document everything! Sebastian tricked me into suggesting to my friends that we should have a couples karaoke battle so I was game. We sang in groups, guys first then the girls.
Then Sebastian went up so I thought “okay, maybe he wants to sing by himself” but towards the end, he called me up to sing with him and the rest is history! He sang “Love of my life” by Queen. At the last verse, he put the microphone back on the stand and I started to get nervous. Then he got on one knee and proposed to me, asking me to spend the rest of my life with him.
Of course, I said yes! My friends were in tears, my mom, aunt, sister, and cousin ran out from the bush and were all cheering and the tears were non-stop flowing from everyone. I was so shocked. I also realized that Sebastian had hired Anthony to photograph everything which was such a great move on his part. What I would give to re-live this day just one more time!
