The Story (so far)
The Characters
Kaena and Lara have spent their whole lives trying to find each other, quite literally!
Lara was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Kaena grew up in San Diego, California. Despite their distance geographically, they knew that they needed to find each other, and have been working on it ever since.
It all started when Kaena was 7, when he and he and his grandparents went camping in New Mexico. Kaena didn't know quite yet know who he was looking for, but he was on the lookout for Lara! He had a good hunch too, Lara spent most of her childhood running around in the dry deserts looking for tarantulas to take home as pets.
There was the time when Lara and her family visited San Diego, she visited the zoo and spent time with the gorillas. She thought she saw Kaena then, but they weren't meant to meet yet.
Kaena grew up and moved to Portland, Oregon and Lara to Arcata, California. Finally they were closer to one another! Lara went on a business trip to Portland and stayed in a hotel on the same street where Kaena worked, but she just barely missed each him. Kaena went on a roadtrip and drove through northern California, and sped right by her. They STILL didn't find each other.
Frustrated, they decided it was time to move on...to San Diego! It was there that Kaena and Lara FINALLY met.
They had their first date on January 13th, 2019. By the end of their first date, they had their next three dates planned, because they knew they had finally found each other and made sure they would never miss each other again. Now they will never have to worry about not finding each other for the whole rest of their lives.
The Engagement
Kaena proposed to Lara on December 30th, 2019 in Portland, Oregon with the help of his friends and family.
Kaena had promised to propose to Lara by the end of the year, and he left it down to the wire! Anticipating that she would expect a proposal on the 31st, Kaena completely took Lara by surprise and proposed after the perfect Portland day filled with hiking, good food and relaxation at the Knot Springs Spa. As Kaena and Lara were walking into their Airbnb, Kaena asked Lara to open the code to the door (1113, the anniversary of their first date) and her engagement ring dropped out of the lockbox; she spun around to see Kaena behind her, on one knee.
He said many amazing things, but Lara was so excited that she doesn't remember any of it.
She did recall the most important part though: she said yes!
The Attempts
After the engagement, Lara and Kaena picked a date.
September 27, 2020
It was going to be great - end of summer, big pool party, not a care in the world. You may remember seeing one of these:
Lara even found her wedding dress in early March, 2020. March 2020 turned out to be (as you may recall) a very bad month. Come June, once it was pretty clear that it wasn't in the cards for us. So we made the tough decision to push! Surely, by Summer 2021 the whole pandemic will be behind us!
September 27, 2020 August 29, 2021
As they settled in to a pandemic-induced lockdown, well, lots happened. They eloped! Kaena got cancer! And beat it! But wait there's more!
Lara got pregnant!
Being math geniuses, they quickly figured out that this baby was going to arrive only a month before the new wedding date. And that was... not ideal. You get the drill.
August 29, 2021 May 1, 2022
So that's it, right? It says May 1 right up there at the top. No more shenanigans.
Well...
Lara & Kaena got a call from The Lafayette in June 2021. The hotel was sold, and the new owners wanted to make some renovations. The timeline for the remodel? March 2022 - September 2022. That date that was picked in May? No go.
May 1, 2022 October 9, 2022
At this point, the earliest things were going to happen was going to be October. Lara and Kaena were beginning to wonder if this was ever going to happen!
They decided not to do anything yet. This was all too much, a baby was on the way, this is a problem that can wait.
And it's a good thing they did! The Lafayette reached back out in September 2021 with more news. Due to the pandemic (ha!), construction materials were in short supply, and the renovations were being pushed back... to fall 2022! The October date was off the table, but May was once again available!
May 1, 2022 October 9, 2022 May 1, 2022
So here we are. On our FIFTH DATE.
This time it's happening! For real! Finally!
