After thirteen years together, one secret marriage, one almost–liver donation, one postponed wedding, one lost venue, one ER adventure, one genetic heart defect, and one guardian‑angel‑level plot twist…

We are finally having a party!

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And we would really love you to be there.

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Our (Very Accidental) Love Story Timeline: 

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We met at Dog Beach in Del Mar playing volleyball in 2012. It took us a year to finally go on a date in September 2013. On our 2nd date we agreed that we didn't need get married, but we could build a life together. (When you know, you know.) We shacked up in 2014. Then in  July 2015, Sam decided to "lock her down" and we got engaged in the water in Key West—romantic, simple, perfect. By September, we had a wedding venue picked out. Easy, right?
Not so fast.

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In August 2015, Laura volunteered to be evaluated as a living liver donor for a family friend. If approved, she’d be in the ICU for a week, and only immediate family could visit. The hospital did not consider a fiancé “immediate family.” (Rude.)

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So, naturally, we got “married on paper” before she left for the Cleveland Clinic.

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On September 5, 2015, we stopped at a same‑day minister’s house in La Jolla on our way to Mission Beach to play volleyball. We were in beach clothes. We took zero pictures. We told zero people (except Laura’s mom who was our witness). It was the least Pinterest‑worthy wedding in history.

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Laura and her mom flew to Ohio, where she was approved as the donor. But in a twist that can only be described as divine scheduling, the family friend received a deceased‑donor liver the very same day she was approved. He got his transplant, and Laura did not have to undergo major surgery. A miracle with impeccable timing.

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Fast‑forward to December 2015: we found ourselves in family court filling out paperwork that required us to admit we were already married. We didn’t want to ask Logan and Hudson to keep a secret that big, so we emailed our families and changed our Facebook status like two people who definitely did not plan any of this.

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We still intended to have the “real” wedding but decided it was more important to focus first on being a family. We postponed to May 2017. Then the city changed its ordinances, our venue lost its license, and our deposit arrived back in the mail with an apologetic letter. Our wedding was canceled.

So we said, “Fine. Five‑year anniversary party it is.”
That would have been September 2020. Enough said.

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We floated the idea of a 10‑year anniversary party—until life threw another plot twist. We spent two days in the ER with Sam, who was experiencing worsening shortness of breath. It turned out he was in active heart failure due to a genetic defect that had been misdiagnosed as asthma when he was 12. The inhaler had been masking the symptoms for decades. The good news is that it can be fixed.

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Somewhere between the monitors beeping and the hospital Jell‑O, we decided our anniversary date must be cursed. Sam joked that we should get divorced and remarried on a different date.

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Laura, who had just taken on a European client and had been reading financial documents in day/month/year format, suddenly realized: 9/5/2015 doesn’t have to be September 5th. It could be May 9th.

Reverse the date, reverse the curse!

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We checked the calendar—May 9, 2026 is a Saturday.
We checked with the country club—they had it open.
The universe finally said, “Okay, fine, you win.”

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Then came one last hurdle: Sam needs heart valve repair surgery. After months of tests, the first available date was late April—cutting it close. But then we got the call: he’s been moved up to March 17th, his mom’s birthday. We’re choosing to believe she pulled some strings from above. His recovery time is six weeks, and the surgery will now be seven weeks before the party.

The curse is officially losing.

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So…

After all of that, we would be honored if you joined us for our Reverse the Curse Party (a vow renewal) on May 9th at El Camino Country Club in Oceanside. The attire is country club casual (creative interpretations encouraged).

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We hope you’ll celebrate with us as we finally—finally—Reverse the Curse.