We are so excited to celebrate with you.
We met at work. It was Curtis’s first day working at Madden Media in downtown Tucson, where Kathleen had just started working a few months earlier. Kathleen’s cubicle mate met Curtis and mentioned to Kathleen that “this new guy has cool shoes.” Kathleen met Curtis briefly that day and inwardly thought “hey, he DOES have cool shoes!” Kathleen later (MUCH later) learned that Curtis thought she was pretty.
For the next year and a half, we worked together and became friends, but it took a vacation to move things forward.
As Kathleen planned an annual family vacation to Newport Beach, CA, she and Curtis had been talking a lot. Definitely more than normal co-workers, but still, we were just friends. However, something was shifting and Curtis told Kathleen that he would ask her out properly when she returned. Kathleen enjoyed her vacation but definitely thought about this nonstop! When Kathleen got back, Curtis created a scavenger hunt with clues placed around the Madden building, leading Kathleen back to Curtis’s office where he gave her one last card, asking her on a date. She accepted!
Curtis made salmon for that first dinner date, because it was the one meal that he knew for sure that Kathleen liked. It was scrumptious, we talked for hours, and by the end of that date, we both knew that we wanted to keep dating. That was August 6, 2015.
Over the years, we kept dating, we kept talking, and we kept eating salmon on our anniversary. Somewhere in there, we fell in love and knew that this would be forever.
Curtis proposed on Kathleen’s 40th birthday, surprising her with (what else?) a delicious salmon dinner and a beautiful ring to begin our next chapter.
Every single month since we started dating, on the 6th of the month, we wish each other a “happy 6th.” Curtis almost always remembers before Kathleen! We knew that we wanted to get married on a 6th because it’s a special day for us: We met on the 6th and we started dating on the 6th, so when we learned that November 6 fell on a Saturday this year, we immediately started planning around that!
Before Kathleen was born, her mother, Diane, worked at a local travel agency. By chance, Curtis’s family used that travel agency for their vacations. After Curtis and Kathleen started dating, Curtis’s mom, Linda, discovered a calendar from 1976, which listed an appointment at the travel agency with Diane! As Curtis was not yet in school, Linda probably took him to that appointment with her. So although we'll never know for sure, it’s very likely that Diane met her future son-in-law when he was just 4 years old!
Curtis knows that Kathleen loves being an auntie to her four nieces and nephews, and found a perfect way to incorporate that into his proposal. Her niece Nora embroidered a small pillow for Kathleen’s birthday, which she received the day before. Curtis placed the engagement ring in the gift box under the pillow, and re-presented it to Kathleen. Including Nora’s sweet gift in the proposal made it even more special!
For our engagement photos, Curtis wore the same shoes that he wore on the day he met Kathleen. Kathleen still thought they were cool!
Curtis and Kathleen are both Tucson natives, born and raised. While they have both ventured elsewhere, they have returned to the place they call home.