“I was working for a subscription billing software company called Zuora, working in San Francisco. Ryan was working at a Victoria-based tech startup called Terapeak, which was a Zuora customer. In April 2016, Terapeak sent Ryan down to San Francisco for Zuora’s annual conference. The conference after party had (1) an open bar, (2) Ryan visiting California for the first time on his company’s dime and looking to have a good time, and (3) me, who had worked overtime for the past three months to prep a talk I gave earlier that day, ready to decompress. We met on the dance floor. When the club closed at midnight, a coworker grabbed Ryan and I by the arms and cajoled us into going to an after after party at another bar nearby. We chatted the whole night, exchanged numbers and, at 2:00 am, parted ways. The next morning, six hours later, we met up (very hungover) at a Women in Tech breakfast. After the other conference sessions that day, we met up for an impromptu coffee, just walking around until we settled on something in Union Square. He told me his mom had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and that he was taking part time prep classes for the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) exam to become a Certified Public Accountant. I felt a deep connection and admired his ambition. But he lived in British Columbia. I lived in California — this would never work. So we texted every day for a year and a half just as friends. After our first meeting in April 2016, he passed the CFE exam, his mom had a successful treatment, and then just before Christmas in 2017, his company got acquired by eBay. He had 48 hrs to decide if he wanted to accept an offer to move to their San Jose, California headquarters. He said yes—and the rest is history!”
– Caroline, the bride
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