The first encounter (2004)

The date was December 17, 2004, a Friday. Both age 18, Andra and Ed first met on a cold, February night. Andra was a student at Trinity College and Ed was a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. That night, someone kept pulling the fire alarm in Andra's Trinity dorm. Justin, Ed's best friend (and now best man!), who also lived in Andra's dorm, decided enough was enough - he gathered a few friends from the dorm, Andra included, and made the 45 minute drive north to UMass to visit Ed.

Neither Andra nor Ed remember much from that first encounter. The group spent a couple hours in Ed's dorm room just hanging out. Ed remembers Andra asking to use his computer and asking what dorm she was in - she wanted to send a message to a friend of hers at UMass saying that she was visiting. She did so using a small website for college students, Facebook (it is, of course, no longer small and no longer college-only). The timestamp of this message is how we know the day we met!

A note from Ed: Thank you, person who kept pulling the fire alarm at Trinity.

Acquaintances (2004 - 2011)

Over the college years, Andra and Ed remained friends of friends. Ed would occasionally visit Trinity to see Justin. On some of those trips, he would see Andra - mostly in a group setting. On one of those visits though, Andra and Ed spent some time alone just talking for an hour or two. After this night, whenever Ed would think of Andra, he would always remember how easy and natural it felt to talk to Andra.

NYC (2011 - today)

When 2011 rolled around, Andra, Ed, and Justin all found themselves living in NYC. In October 2011, Justin organized a surprise group dinner for his wife, Allison; the only guests were Andra and Ed. Either that night or at some point soon after that (we don't remember!), the group discussed wanting a tour of the office of Ed's new employer, Google. A night was scheduled for the tour, but at the last minute, Justin had to back out (he says this wasn't planned, but we don't know if we believe him), making it just Andra and Ed. The two had dinner alone at the Google NYC office, then explored the office for awhile. Ed, enjoying his time, asked if Andra wanted to go out for a drink. Andra agreed and the pair headed to the nearby Brass Monkey bar.

After the first night of Andra and Ed hanging out together in NYC, many similar nights followed: dinners, movies, and so on. Shortly after Thanksgiving, Ed confessed to Andra that he had developed feelings for her. Soon after, Andra and Ed "officially" became a couple at the Google NYC holiday party at the New York Public Library. The date was December 8, 2011, a Thursday.

Engagement (2016)

For Andra's 30th birthday, Ed surprised Andra with a trip to the San Francisco area. After spending a couple days in downtown San Francisco, the pair headed north across the Golden Gate Bridge to Napa. A few days later, in the backyard of their private cottage at the Carneros Inn, on a cool summer evening, Ed got down on one knee and proposed to Andra. She said yes; the rest, as they say, is history.