Our Story
From opposite ends of the country to one beach in California — the long, unlikely way two people found their way home to each other.
How they
met.
Jay grew up in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Megan on the island of Maui, Hawai’i — nearly five thousand miles and an entire country between them. Two people raised on opposite coasts, under different skies, with no reason to ever cross paths. And yet somehow the map folded, and they met in the middle.
That middle turned out to be the University of Utah, where their lives had quietly drawn closer without either of them realizing it. But it wasn’t a lecture hall or a campus party that finally brought them together — it was the ocean. During fall break in 2021, a group trip with friends carried them both to Mission Beach in San Diego. Megan was sitting in the sand, laughing with her friends, when Jay walked over and introduced himself. What was meant to be a passing hello unfolded into an entire day and evening of conversation, the kind where the hours disappear and the sun slips before either of you notices.
The spark didn’t stay behind in California. Back in Salt Lake City, the two kept finding their way back to each other, and it wasn’t long before they shared their first real date at Caffè Molise — over generous plates of pasta and a slow-poured bottle of wine that stretched across hours of easy conversation. One dinner became many — a season of dates, small adventures, and unhurried weekends that slowly turned two strangers from opposite ends of the country into each other’s home.
When did
you know?
For Megan, it wasn’t one single moment so much as a quiet accumulation of them — a hundred small windows, over those first dates and early adventures together, into who Jay really was. The way he consistently strove to do the right thing, even when it was the harder path. The respect he showed her through his actions, and showed everyone around him, again and again. The way that simply being with him gently made her a better person — someone who wanted to show up more fully, more honestly, the way he always did. Still, if she’s honest, the first inkling came all the way back on Mission Beach. She couldn’t have told you then that he was the one, but something in her stirred — a quiet intuition whispering that maybe, just maybe, he might be.
Jay’s certainty came a little later, though no less completely. Right before Thanksgiving in 2024, he told his mom he wanted to go Christmas shopping — a small cover story for what was really a ring-shopping mission. Somewhere in that search it settled over him without a doubt: he couldn’t picture his life beside anyone else, couldn’t imagine another partner, another mother to his future children. It was Megan. It had always been Megan.
How Jay
proposed.
He chose New Year’s Eve. Megan had just stumbled off a red-eye flight, exhausted and more than ready to bail on their plans to ski Deer Valley — but Jay gently insisted they go. After a couple of runs that morning, they skied toward a lookout on the Jordanelle run, a sweeping view over the Jordanelle Reservoir he wanted her to see. As she took in the scenery, Jay dropped to one knee.
Breaths held, a tearful “yes,” and a flurry of hugs and kisses later, the surprises weren’t finished. Their closest friends had quietly ridden the gondola up the mountain, waiting to celebrate at the summit of Deer Valley over oysters and champagne. There, surrounded by the people they loved most and one unforgettable view, they toasted to forever.
