LOVE STORY: Claire & Delaney

This nature loving couple from Davis share how they met and how they got engaged. YES during a global pandemic y’all! Their beautiful, romantic and symbolic love story is everything I needed right now.

Please introduce yourself: Where are you two from and what are you passionate about?

Claire and Delaney, we are from Davis, CA, but originally Delaney is from San Diego, CA and Claire is from Houston, TX. We love swimming in rivers, gardening, picking wild blackberries, baking together, and brainstorming solutions to the world's problems while hiking. We are both passionate about sustainability and regenerative practices, in addition to education! Like many others in our generation, the current condition of our world is pushing us into action of finding spaces and moments to show love, kindness, and compassion. We both believe that fostering a respectful, inclusive, and empathetic community will help the world heal and grow.

 

How did you two first meet?

We actually met through a dating app! For our first date we went to a local brewery, I (Claire) was 30 minutes late because I lost my car keys, but luckily she waited for me! Although we only had one beer each, we sat outside talking until they closed. That whole spring and summer was filled with camping, hiking, swimming, picnicking, reading each other's favorite books, sharing playlists, and finding as many different wildflowers as we could. 

How and or when did you first know she was the one?

Delaney: I think I knew on the first date, around 3:30 in the morning on my couch. After talking for hours about plants, animals, who we were and what excites us, and getting into a joking mood about baby teeth, I read her a poem I wrote years before, and then she let me tell her a joke. She let me tell her a terrible, pun-filled, rope joke, but she already knew the joke, she let me tell it anyway, and then right after, I let her tell her version of the same joke, with a string instead of a rope. I just kept thinking that so many things about her were perfect, I felt like I had just met my best friend. I remember it was the second date though, a week later, when we were having a picnic on the creek, that I knew. It was a messy picnic and so were we, the honey festival we had just come from left us sticky, our beer was warm, and our watermelon had rolled into the creek. I remember at that date, when we were both in the creek, her eyes sparkling with the water in the sun, that was the moment I knew one day I would be asking her to be my wife. 

Claire: I first knew Delaney was the one when I drove to her house to pick her up for our second date. She was waiting for me in a wooden kitchen chair in the middle of her front yard reading my favorite book (we had talked about our literary tattoos on our first date) and wearing overalls. Embarrassingly, I too had decided to wear overalls for the date. I remember the way she looked up from the book and smiled. I got out of the car and asked her if she had a band aid for a minuscule, undeserving of medical attention cut on my finger. She made fun of me but still lovingly and gently applied a bandaid to my finger. Later on that date she said “I’m so excited about you” and I couldn’t have agreed more.

What a time to get engaged right? What was your engagement like? How and where did Delaney pop the question? Was it a surprise? 

Yes! Delaney said she was taking me on a date and as we often surprise each other with planned excursions, I wasn’t suspecting anything. She had planned for us to go hiking at our favorite spot in Auburn, but as we drove up we weren't sure if it was going to work out. They had closed down all of the state recreational areas for normal parking and, at first, it wasn't looking like we would find a spot to park nearby, but eventually we found a safe area to park and we hiked into the park from there. We set up our picnic blanket on the sandy banks of the river. She pulled out all the food for the picnic that she had sneakily packed, with all the foods we ate on our second date (including a watermelon that we somehow managed to drop and roll into the water - exactly what we did at our first creekside picnic). She asked if she could read a poem she wrote and I was like “yeah sure, okay” but once I realized how nervous she was, I knew something was up. She read the poem off a folded up piece of paper in her pocket and then got down on one knee! We fake propose all the time so I said “Are you serious this time?!” And I knew she was when she pulled out the ring, tied to my favorite handkerchief from my mom. We both cried a lot. The picnic blanket she used was the one my mom made as favors for my sister Abbey’s wedding and she had brought the quartz crystal that was the favor from my sister Hannah’s wedding, both items we say had soaked up so much love from those days. Since our families couldn’t be close, she wanted me to feel surrounded by the love from them. We cried some more then went swimming in the river. She did so good! The day was perfect, filled with everything we love and all the things that led us to fall in love, and the ring is amazing. It’s my favorite color blue; the color of water in rivers and the ocean, and the color of her eyes (I told her her eyes were my favorite shade of blue on our first date). I love it and I can’t wait to marry my favorite person. 

What does the Pacifica Ring represent to you? Why did you (Delaney) pick this out for Claire?

The Pacifica ring represents a couple different things for us. I had been looking for a ethical jewelry company and I when I found Valley Rose Studio, I was so excited, a woman owned, local, and ethical jewelry company! I wanted to find a ring with blue stones, because the ocean, rivers, and creeks are big parts of who we each are and our life together. To us, the three stones also remind of us of Orion, which represents another important part of our life.