Katie was born and raised in Maui, HI then moved to Reno, NV for college and is now a senior accounting manager. Makinna was born and raised in Reno and is a behavior analyst for the school district. The two met online, but although Katie had rated Makinna as someone she liked, Makinna hadn’t paid for the premium account and wasn’t supposed to be able to access Katie as a match. Lucky for them, the glitch led to back-and-forth messaging and a first date, which led to a relationship.
Proposal Date: November 11th 2015
Makinna: Katie and I always talked about our future together. She makes fun of me because I began talking about kids and marriage about two weeks after our first date. In my defense, I didn’t mean right away, but I knew she was the one from the very beginning. We had been talking about buying a house together, and I wanted to play off that idea for the proposal.
Katie: I was having a very stressful day at work and Makinna was trying to get me to come home. After a 13-hour day I cried on my way home due to stress, but when I walked in the door, tears still streaming down my face, Makinna told me she had a present for me. Getting surprise presents from her are not unusual and the thought instantly made me smile.
Makinna: I bought several items that represented things in our lives we had planned, hoped, or wished for together, like baby shoes to represent having kids together, a mini soccer ball and baseball to represent going to all of our kids’ activities, and a picture of Hawaii to signify the beach house we want to buy in her home town. There were 14 presents total. The last present was an envelope with a note that said, “All of these things can come true if you answer one question.”
Katie: Makinna pulled out a large bag of presents and told me to work my way through them. The first present was about buying a house together. We had casually been looking into it, but it wasn’t until the fourth present about having children and building our life that I caught on that this was a proposal. I started crying again (happy tears) and continued working my way through the bag until I got to the last present.
Makinna: When she finished reading the note I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me.
Katie: I was in shock and said ‘noooooo’ when she got down on one knee. Luckily she knew the ‘noooooo’ was from excitement and it quickly turned into a ‘Yes I will marry you.’ For the next month I planned the perfect proposal back. I filled a book with all the reasons I wanted to marry her, from silly things like how she makes me smile to more important things like how I found my confidence after I met her. I strung lights up in our bedroom and blew up 50 balloons with helium then attached our favorite photos to the ends with string. I played our song on repeat and waited for her to come into the room. She said yes and made me the happiest person alive.
Makinna: I still look at the book she made me often, during both good and hard times. I love that I have something I can look back on from the day she proposed to me!
The brides took engagement photos with Fifth & Chestnut Photo Co. They will be married on June 3rd, 2017.