Clear Cut Couples: Ali and Andrew
As fairly new residents in Washington, DC, Ali and Andrew met on Hinge and connected over the fact they were both from California. Their first date was on a hot, humid day in July. They met at a bar downtown that Andrew picked out. What was supposed to be one drink turned into a mini bar crawl. They talked for hours about how they went to competing colleges (UCSB and Cal Poly) and made several moves around the country that led them to DC. After some friendly competition against each other in skee ball at the local dive bar, they realized that they should eat dinner. The only place open was a pizza joint near Ali’s apartment that became a staple for future date nights. Since then, they have been together for four years!
On their second date, Andrew told Ali that he was moving to Philadelphia for a new job. She thought that she wouldn’t see him again, but when he told her he already planned to visit DC often and wanted to see her, she thought why not! They ended up seeing each other as much as possible. Ali stopped through Philly on trips up to New York and then they started a long distance relationship. After two years of commuting between DC and Philly, Andrew moved back to DC and they got an apartment together. Finally, they moved back to CA together to be closer to family.
They have shared so many incredible memories over the years! Their first trip outside of the country was Tulum which was absolutely magical. They dived in cenotes and had margaritas in the jungle. They are blessed with a great friend group that always loved gathering for weekend trips in places like Dewey Beach, Outerbanks, Virginia mountains, Miami, Chicago, and Palm Springs. Ali said, “Andrew and I also love a good theme party and could always be found dressed up on the Potomac. For his 30th birthday, I threw him a 80s/90s theme party. We island hopped around Greece last year before moving back to CA. One more memorable moment that I can’t forget is adopting a puppy in April that we named Philly after the city where our relationship took off!”
Andrew planned a special getaway weekend for the proposal. With all of their 2020 plans cancelled, Andrew had to get creative. They road tripped to Paso Robles where they spent Friday at an outdoor art exhibit made of thousands of colored lights. On Saturday, they woke up and played a round of golf before their first wine tasting. At the second winery, named L’Aventure, Andrew coordinated with the staff to do something special. “On the last wine of the tasting, the winery told us that since harvest was finishing up, we were able to go into the vineyard to get a closer look at the vines. While posing for a picture, Andrew got down on one knee and proposed! I said yes as the whole winery cheered.”
Ali had no idea that Andrew was going to propose in the beautiful vineyard, but was expecting it to happen soon! She said, “I was lucky to get to work with Olivia on the center stone and Andrew surprised me with the rest of the design. I thought the oval and pears were absolutely gorgeous!” As for their wedding, they are enjoying being engaged and will wait and see where the next year takes them before planning.