Our life

Serendipitous, to say the least…

It all started in July of 2020, when our friends invited us to join them on a camping trip. We had never met, but we clicked instantly. Narelle taught Charlotte how to play Yahtzee (as seen to the right in our first picture ever), followed by hours of card games, guitar and music around the fire, and time spent water coloring and hanging out by a river. We both left that weekend knowing someone special had just entered our lives, but neither of us could have dreamt where life would take us from there.

After that fateful weekend, we started messaging on Instagram and quickly realized we weren’t just building a friendship. Narelle was living in Modesto, and Charlotte was in LA, so we became experts at virtual dates and the 99 freeway. Since then, we lived together in LA for a while, have since moved to Portland, and have lived a lot of life since then. Including taking this amazing step towards marriage.

I mean, how could anyone meet Narelle and not want to spend forever with her?

- Charlotte

When it came time to propose, we both planned surprise proposals on the coast.

Narelle first, on January 25, where she planned a trip to Neskowin, a small town on the Oregon coast. She recreated our first date, using a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book, all leading to a walk on the beach before dinner, where a photographer was hiding out to capture the whole thing. It was perfect, with beautiful skies and the magic of the Oregon coast as the backdrop. We spent the whole weekend exploring tidepools, finding rocks and shells, and enjoying the view from our AirBnB on the beach.

Charlotte proposed on February 1, during a surprise trip to Carmel, California, where we went for our first Valentine’s Day together. We spent the day exploring the cute downtown area before popping over to Lover’s Point in Pacific Grove. Then we finally made our way to a quiet beach, where our friends had set up a perfect display before hiding in the bushes so that they could pop out and surprise Narelle.

Special shout-out to our amazing friends for executing the vision better than we could’ve dreamed!

How did I get so lucky?

- Narelle

Obviously, there has been a lot of time and life between us meeting in 2020 and getting engaged in 2025, so consider this space your glimpse into it all. We plan on updating this leading up to the wedding, too, so be sure to peruse anytime you return to the site.

Other highlights

Cuddles with our sweet Cleo, March 2025

It’s important to us that everyone attending our wedding feels connected to who we are today, and we hope this helps those who missed some of these updates along the way!