How we met

Karen and Michael met through mutual college friends in New York, where she was completing her pre-medical studies and he was working as a research assistant at the NY Fed. While they both attended Stanford and graduated only one year apart, they had never met on campus. They got to know each other in NYC over mint juleps at a Kentucky Derby party, exploring restaurants and bars in Manhattan and watching Stanford football games. Michael was drawn to Karen’s adventurous spirit, intellect, fun-loving nature and bright smile. He’s still not sure why she was drawn to him but assumes it’s due to his rugged good looks.

As Karen started medical school at Mount Sinai, both became very familiar with the 6 train between the Upper East Side and East Village. When Michael started his PhD in Economics at UC Berkeley, their commute to see each other got longer but they didn’t stop them from having adventures together in Napa, Tahoe, Charleston and South Africa. Michael knew Karen was a keeper and is so excited to marry her!  Karen feels lucky to be marrying a guy with such rugged good looks.

The Proposal
Date: June 30, 2013
Location: Windansea Beach, La Jolla

The morning of the proposal, Michael and Karen were traveling to San Diego to visit Karen’s parents from a visit with Michael’s family in North Carolina. Michael knew how much Karen liked the beach near her house and how much time she spent there growing up, so he thought it would be the perfect place for the proposal.

Michael was nervous going through security and was really hoping that nothing in his bag would set off a search and ruin the surprise. Upon arriving in San Diego in the early afternoon, Karen was tired and took a nap (after all, they had been up since 4 am East Coast time!). Michael kept mentioning that he wanted to go to the beach that afternoon, but it was a tough sell to Karen as she preferred to keep sleeping. “The weather is supposed to be just as nice tomorrow, why can’t we go then?” she said. Michael’s persistence finally won out, and they made their way to the beach in the late afternoon. After sitting on the beach for a little bit, Michael pulled out his first surprise, a photo album of their relationship. They went through it together, and at the end Michael started saying nice things, but Karen still didn’t know what was about to happen. After short interruption from a wave, Michael resumed his spiel, which left Karen quite confused until he pulled out the ring and popped the question!

After the proposal, they took some pictures, called family and friends and went out to dinner with Karen’s parents to celebrate.