Our Story

A long, long time ago, in a deep dark concrete forest (a.k.a. the University of Waterloo), there was a place called Eby Hall. It was here that Ash, living on floor 3, noticed the lovely blonde on floor 13. It wasn’t until second year, after three whole months of ballroom dance lessons together, that he thought perhaps he should ask her out on a date (see Figure 1).

Figure 1
Figure 1: The date that started it all. Young and innocent, Blaise and Ash head off to Rude Native for the first of many fine restaurant meals together.

Despite Ash being busy building robots to become a Mechatronics Engineer and Blaise being occupied deciphering the lever rule to become a Chemical Engineer, they still somehow managed to find time to spend together (see Figure 2). When Blaise decided to head to France on exchange for a term, Ash resolved there was no way he was going to let some dashing Frenchmen woo her away from him. Together at the Université de Technologie de Compiègne, they spent weekdays decrypting a foreign grading system and weekends traipsing about the continent.

Figure 2
Figure 2: Chocolate is pretty much the only makeup that Blaise has used while dating Ash. Luckily, he finds it both attractive and tasty.

Graduation was bittersweet; while Blaise and Ash were heading off on an exciting European adventure in the summer, they had to face the reality of living 1571 km (or 976 miles) apart come the fall as Blaise headed to do her PhD at Stanford University in California and Ash headed back to his native Vancouver to study at Simon Fraser University. Air Canada made a small fortune from them over the next two years. The couple was once again reunited in California when Ash moved down to work at Gumstix. The duo share a passion for food (see Figure 3) and playing outdoors (see Figure 4).

Figure 3
Figure 3: Canadian candied apples, Italian gelato, Asian pastries, and Luxembourgish fruit + cheese have provided sustenance over the years.

If you have been doing the math, you may have realized that by now Ash and Blaise have been dating for eons. Blaise’s parents had even been carrying around a bottle of champagne for some time. After all, if this Ash kid had managed to put up with their daughter for this long then he might just be silly enough to ask her to marry him? When Ash finally did pop the question in 2013, Blaise figured it was best to say yes (in case it took 8 more years for a second chance).

Figure 4
Figure 4: To make up for all that eating, Ash and Blaise go out hiking, sailing, skiing, biking, skating, or, apparently, flying through the air trying to kick each other.

Over the years, they have shared many adventures from hiking the Inca Trail and sailing the Caribbean seas to sampling dumplings in Hong Kong and sipping wine on Santorini. Blaise and Ash can’t wait to have a big party… err, get married… and embark on the next great adventure together!