It all started back in 2013 at Ohio State—on a warm night under the August blue moon. Mark was outside doing some “very important” bike repairs (maybe shirtless), while Shelby was (climbing scaffolding) trying to photograph the moon. One glance across the courtyard and, well… the rest is history! Sparks flew!

From there, it was learning to do laundry (badly), trying every new food on campus, coordinating halloween costumes, coffee-fueled finals, and cheering each other on through some pretty big milestones—Mark heading to the Olympic Trials for swimming in 2016, Shelby presenting her design thesis in 2017, and both of them supporting one another through it all.

In 2019, they packed up their lives and moved from Ohio to Portland for Mark’s grad school. Along the way, they camped through national parks, saw more landscapes than they ever imagined existed, and maybe had a minor bear spray incident (sorry Mark).
In 2020, they added one very good boy—Bodhi—to the crew and officially became
a quaran-team.

By 2022, Mark had a new degree and they had a new city—Seattle—where weekends have become a blur of bike rides, kayaking, backpacking trips, and brewery stops in between.

Twelve years, countless adventures, and one loyal pup later—they’re still best friends, madly in love, and finally ready to make it official. Mark and Shelby finally do it!