Our story

The beginning

Shad and Alex met in July 2010 at a friend's "Vin vs. wine" party in Paris, where they sampled various Californian and French wines. However, as it turns out, it wasn't the Californian *wine* that had a lasting impression on Alex, and it wasn't the French *vin* that caught Shad's eye...

Things really came into view one August weekend when Shad suggested that they meet up for dinner on Friday night to "help fight jetlag," since Alex had just come back from a trip to the US. The next day, Alex suggested that she come over to "help build furniture," since Shad had just made a trip to IKEA. Their true intentions became clear on Saturday night when, after a picnic with friends in the Champs de Mars, they sat at a fountain in front of the Eiffel Tower, feet dangling in the water, and shared their first kiss.

Yeah, yeah... a first kiss while sitting in front of the world's most famous romantic landmark, how incredibly corny. But, whatever. It actually happened. And it was awesome.

The development

September was a rather big month. Shad went to a dinner party with Alex, where he met her closest friends and family. Likewise, Alex went to a wedding in Germany with Shad, where she met many of his closest friends. And in the spirit of the 21st Century, she met Shad's dad via Skype.

In the months that followed, their two lives became more and more entwined with one another. They took their first vacation together to Greece in November, and found their first apartment together in December. The next couple months involved boxes, carrying deconstructed wardrobe closets in buses, boxes, turning their living room into a full-fledged woodshop, and more boxes. They finished in February 2011, and hosted a party to celebrate Shad's 30th birthday party and chez Shadalex's housewarming.

In March 2011, Shad's brother Cory came to Paris and met Alex. Cory being the foodie he is, they took a trip together to Périgord. This is the home of foie gras, where they take duck so seriously that they have statues of them in downtown areas. Following this, Shad's dad Dan came to Paris and met Alex in July 2011. Dan loving cycling as much as he did, they took a trip together to the Pyrénées Mountains. This is the home of some of the Tour de France's most famous stages, where they actually have a statue of a cyclist atop a mountain pass.

As many of you know, the tone of this story changes a bit with what follows next. Dan suffered a heart attack and passed away while in France. Alex came to California to support Shad and his family in the weeks that followed. After three weeks she had to return to work in Paris, and Shad stayed behind to help finish working through Dan's affairs.

Through this, Shad and Alex realized how truly fortunate they were to have one another.  And so Shad decided to do something about it.

The engagement and the rings

With Alex back in France, Shad took advantage of being alone in San Francisco and contacted a jewelry studio about an engagement ring. In particular, he called Scintillant Studio, where rather than sell you a ring, they lead you through the process of making your own. When Shad returned home to Paris, he had a little surprise in store for Alex...

Since they were in California, Shad and Alex didn't get a chance to return to the Eiffel Tower on the one-year anniversary of our first kiss. This gave Shad the perfect excuse why they should go there the weekend he returned, as well as a perfect excuse why he could surprise her with a little booklet once they'd arrived at the Eiffel Tower.

As she opened the booklet, she suspected nothing. The first couple pages had pictures of Shad working on house projects, along with their finished results. It seemed like part of a cute summary of our first year together.

Then, it got confusing. Page three followed a similar theme, but involved a project and machinery she'd never seen. The finished product was three odd pieces of metal.

On page four, she saw the three pieces being formed into a ring. And in place of the "final result" picture of the previous three pages, there was a big question mark. Shad dropped to one knee, took out the ring, and said...

... well, she doesn't actually know what he said. With everything else going on, all she could do was say "ouiiiiiii!" It wasn't until later on, when Shad asked whether or not he'd said the correct French expression (he'd spent quite a bit of time practicing, you see), that she admitted that she didn't even know whether her proposal was in French or English!

During their Thanksgiving trip in November, Shad and Alex returned to the same studio and made their wedding bands. One rail of each band is yellow gold, which comes from melting the wedding bands of Shad's mom and Alex's great grandfather.

Alex's engagement ring has three stones: a center diamond flanked by a small green tsavorite (Alex) and a small blue sapphire (Shad). To echo this, on the inside of Shad's wedding band is a (much smaller) set of the same three stones.