Our Story
How did you guys meet?
THE MEETING
Jeff’s perspective:
We first crossed paths and laid eyes on each other in the shoe department at Barney’s in Beverly Hills. I’ll never forget what she was wearing (a red, long-sleeved vintage tuxedo top tucked into ripped jeans) and how her hair was done (pulled back). It was Sunday, June 3, 2018. A few minutes later, I saw her again through a small crowd that was gathered for an event on another floor. I was so intrigued. I pointed her out to the friends I was with and excused myself as I parted the crowd. I had no plan and don’t remember hearing anything or even thinking about what I was going to say, but as I made my approach I found inspiration from Johnny Depp in the movie “Blow” when he saw Penelope Cruz for the first time from across the room (also wearing red), and probably felt the same way I did. So I walked up to her and instead of spitting out a pick-up line, naturally, I took Johnny’s lines from the movie. Here’s how it went down -
THE PROPOSAL
Meeka’s perspective:
We were on a two-week trip to France and Italy in October 2022. It was my first time in Paris and we had the most romantic time. We shopped along Champs Elysee, ate the best cheesecake at Hotel Costes, visited every museum possible and even sourced some furniture for our future home. From there, we rolled into celebrating a friend’s wedding in Puglia and then ended the trip in Lake Como, just the two of us. We rented a vintage boat with a private Captain and it felt like a scene from The Talented Mr. Ripley (with a different outcome). It was just before sunset (during slow season) and no one else was on the entire lake. The captain even popped a bottle of nice champagne. I thought, ok, how can this not happen? Well it didn’t. My perfect manicure and I flew home. About two more months went by and it was New Years Day, January 1, 2023. I lured Jeff into shooting me in Malibu for a campaign I was working on, treating him to his favorite breakfast at Malibu Farms after, and we went on to a hike in the Santa Monica mountains. He packed a backpack and that was a dead giveaway for me. Jeff doesn’t like carrying ANYTHING. But today he had a fully packed backpack. I was confused why he needed supplies for a 45-minute hike. At one point, we found ourselves by a stream and all of a sudden he wanted to sit and catch a new years vibe. As he pulled things out of the backpack (blanket, water) out came a ring. It was just us in the wilderness with no one around and we had our moment. It was beautiful.
But as it turns out, Jeff had the ring in his wallet the entire Europe trip and planned to do it in Como, as I expected. Let’s just say things got lost in translation with my dad and after months of waiting to hear back from him, Jeff couldn’t wait any longer, called my dad and got a straightforward “If you want to do it, do it!” And so he did. The proposal got even further lost in translation after Jeff told my dad the New Years Day plan and my dad asked me if he could join us on the hike. LOL. Anyway, here we are!
