Parker and Mallory grew up on the South Hill of Spokane. Merely blocks apart, for years our worlds took shape separately. We gravitated towards different and sometimes overlapping crowds, but took the opportunity to notice one another when chance happened to bring us together. Throughout middle school and early high school we shared a few classes, Mallory remembers always stealing glances at Parker (she’s had a crush on him since she was 15). Parker remembers Mallory always getting better grades on her English papers even though he definitely tried harder (she was a bit of a kiss ass).

The summer before our senior year we started spending more time together and became fast friends. Weeks away from home together and suspiciously long messaging histories have a way of doing that. The turning point wouldn’t come until the fall, however, where our protagonists found themselves with a dilemma: Hopelessly lost in the middle of the woods and hours late for her prior obligation was not how Mallory anticipated their first official date unfolding, and for his part, neither had Parker. Slightly dehydrated, hungry, but emotionally nourished, we both agree that it couldn’t have happened any other way.

The rest of high school was a blur. Basketball games, prom, falling in love... All that good stuff. College decisions weren’t easy, but we decided we’d take the plunge and do the distance thing: Spokane to Seattle (go Zags, go Dawgs), then Bellingham to Seattle (go Viks). We called every night, no matter what. There were letters, road trips, airport hugs, and moments that stretched us in ways we didn’t expect. It wasn’t always easy. Overcoming loss, anxieties, and uncertainty alongside beautiful moments of growth, independence, and a lot of choosing each other on purpose.

Parker graduated from Western in 2021 and moved to Seattle to live with Mallory and the rest of our chosen family in a big house with a bigger personality; laughter frequently bleeding out onto the street from the front porch. Mallory’s graduation the following year took us out of the U-District and into the action of Capitol Hill where we instantly upgraded our family by adopting Moose: he's a large, ridiculous, orange cat with no concept of personal space and a truly terrible sense of hearing.

These past few years have come with their fair share of chaos, but when a person becomes your home, the dark shadows aren’t quite so endless, and big changes turn into new opportunities for growing together. Parker never slowed down to admire a series of mushrooms or lichen until he saw the way Mal’s face lit up when she did it. Mallory never cared how the dishwasher was loaded until she appreciated the gains in efficiency and dish cleanliness that a properly loaded bottom rack will afford you. Love, it turns out, lives in the little things: notes taped to doors, lunches packed with a “take me with you,” and going to bed on the same team every night.

After eight years, countless hikes (more successfully navigated), several apartments, one orange cat, and a lot of choosing love over fear, Parker proposed to Mallory under a willow tree in the middle of the night right in the center of Paris. Saying yes was the easiest decision she ever made.

We’re ecstatic to be getting married back in Spokane where it all started and couldn’t imagine a better way to celebrate than with each and every one of you; the people who help make our story complete.

See you this summer!

xoxo

The (soon to be) Henriches