Wedding Details

Love Story

Stephen and Vaughn met in August 2012 at a happy hour in the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco, where they were invited to by a mutual friend from college who was moving out of town. Stephen was exactly Vaughn's type: skinny. awkward. glasses. After being introduced, Stephen went to the bar. As soon as he left the table, Vaughn pointed at Stephen, looked at the others at the table and claimed 'dibs.' They connected over their work at local nonprofits and living in the same neighborhood. As the group headed out, Vaughn made sure to hug Stephen--and only Stephen--goodbye.

Fully expecting to never see each other again, a few weeks later, Vaughn's boss cc'ed him on an email to Stephen. Vaughn's boss was unavailable to meet with Stephen and sent Vaughn instead. Stephen emailed Vaughn to say hi and remind him that they met recently, but Vaughn remembered exactly who he was. Vaughn suggested they grab lunch after their meeting (and paid--a big deal to Stephen). After exchanging personal emails, they chatted online everyday secretly during work hours. Then they started spending time together in what most people would consider dates: having one-on-one dinners, going to bingo nights at hip bars, and having long romantic drives along the coast. However, during this time, Vaughn admitted to his best friend, Carlo, that he was pretty sure Stephen didn't understand that they were dating. To Stephen, they were two friends hanging out multiple times a week. Just the two of them. Oftentimes by candlelight.

After a few months (of Vaughn pretending to enjoy Stephen's favorite three-hour long farming themed board game), Vaughn was convinced he'd been friend zoned and was ready to give up. Stephen thought he had a new friend who lived a few blocks away. But then Vaughn's work hosted a party where he and his close friend, Camille, had a good number of drinks. As is tradition when you're feeling good after you've had a few drinks, Camille and Vaughn end up at a diner, where Vaughn took a leap and drunk dialed Stephen. Hearing Vaughn share how all his coworkers were asking, "Where's Stephen? You should have brought him!" Stephen realized that Vaughn talks to other people about him, and that maybe, just maybe Vaughn liked him. In truly awkward fashion, they kinda left it like that for a few weeks.

Then on Halloween 2012, Vaughn invited Stephen to a drag show to see the now legendary Alaska Thunderfuck perform. They both came in costume: Stephen as Waldo from 'Where's Waldo?' and Vaughn as a regularly dressed citizen who found Waldo. Between Alaska's stunning performance and the Halloween mash-up costume contest in which Anne Frankenstein won (imagine a teenage girl version of Frankenstein carrying around a diary), Stephen and Vaughn had to wade through the crowds and, as a necessity, ended up holding hands. They didn't let go the rest of the night.

Twelve years later, they're still holding hands.