Our story began on November 25, 2018 when Shalina clicked “Like” on Marc’s profile and sent him a simple message saying, “I appreciate what you said about honesty and communication. How old is your son?” A handful of days spent messaging and texting back and forth unveiled our many common interests, similar life experiences, and compatible beliefs. We both enjoy art and creativity and have a love of history and science. We each became parents at the age of 19 and spent the majority of the following years as full-time single parents. Our beliefs about life, relationships, religion, and politics are very well aligned. Shalina was impressed by Marc’s intelligence and kind nature. Marc was enamored by Shalina’s creativity and dedication.
Marc eventually asked Shalina if she’d like to have coffee sometime. December 4, 2018 was the day we first met in person and after many hours of easy conversation, our Peets coffee date ended with an agreement that we’d most definitely like to spend more time together.
On date number four, after having some drinks at a local British pub, Marc held Shalina’s hand while taking a night walk through an old cemetery Shalina liked to frequent near her home.
Shalina had been living in her tiny house in Folsom with her daughter Katie (15), working from home as a marketing specialist for a bay area credit union. Marc was a self-employed safety consultant and insurance inspector, living with his son Machai (11) and his dad in Auburn.
Although we both had a strong sense of peace and zero doubts about choosing each other as partners, we decided to find out how our kids would interact before moving any further. We planned an outing to introduce them at an arcade and watched as they accepted each other without hesitation.
Date number nine was our first kiss!
We continued our dates and started incorporating each other into our home lives. Shalina would spend hours and hours listening to Marc talk about history and loved every moment of it. Our conversations were endless, and we began to dream of our future together. The 30-minute commute between our houses gave us ample time to ponder our growing fondness and commitment to one another. We adventured to historical sites, art museums, and beautiful local hiking spots just the two of us, and took the kids camping and on a road trip up to Oregon. We shared our life stories and met each other’s families. The kids grew closer, eventually calling each other brother and sister. Days that included all four of us became “family” days. Shalina’s tiny house was a second home to Marc and Machai.
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, we decided the commuting was becoming too much and we’d rather quarantine as a family. We started talking about merging our lives and moving in together. A couple months later, we made an offer on a fixer upper in Rancho Cordova and the offer was accepted. We moved the tiny house into the backyard of our new property and began the huge project of turning the “big house” into our new family home. The renovations have been extensive but we’ve saved a fortune by doing the majority of the work ourselves and with the help of family. Building sweat equity is a great way to start our lives together! We’ve also learned a lot about each other through the process.
June 26, 2020, on a weekend getaway from the renovations to South Lake Tahoe, Marc asked Shalina to marry him, and she said yes!
After months of hoping we’d see the end of the pandemic before our chosen wedding date of May 1, 2021, we decided to plan a very small ceremony and celebration at our home in Rancho Cordova with just 14 immediate family members invited to attend in person (most of whom were vaccinated!) We’re so thankful for technology which allowed us the opportunity to still share this very important day with all of our friends and extended family via the Internet. Thank you for being here with us in spirit! The live stream took place on Saturday, May 1, 2021 at 5:00pm. You can now watch the ceremony video on our homepage if you missed it. Skip ahead to 29:50 to find the start of the ceremony.
The wedding was a great push for us to finish up the majority of our renovations in time to host our special day. Post-wedding renovations will include building a new room in our garage to provide an office space for Marc (who started a new remote service tech job in November – yay!) and remodeling both bathrooms.
Shalina’s daughter Katie will be 18 in June and will continue to live with us while she attends community college this fall. Marc’s son Machai who also lives with us full-time will be 14 in September and starts online high school this fall. We’re so happy to see how much our two kiddos love each other, and we can’t wait to officially settle into our home as the Kessman family!