Our Story
16 years ago, at the beginning of the 5th grade, we met at a tiny school in Miracle Mile, Los Angeles.
It would be an understatement to say that we didn't like each other at first; but through mutual friends and a lot of forced time together, we were "frenemies" by the end of the school year.
From the 6th grade to the beginning of the 8th grade, we became inseparable best friends. Our casual afterschool texting turned into nightly, multiple-hour-long phone calls as we learned everything about each other.
Unsurprisingly, Stevie caught feelings first, and after a while, Marcela did too. Finally, on December 27, 2011, we officially became life partners, or, at the time, boyfriend and girlfriend. We went on our first trip together to Washington D.C. that Spring, and we graduated from middle school in May 2012.
We spent the summer of 2012 going to movies, hanging out at the La Brea Tarpits, and making long-term plans for what we wanted our future to look like, starting with the goal of going to college together. Other goals included travel, marriage, and a still uncompleted goal of buying a classic Volkswagen bus.
During high school, our parents were kind enough to drive us around and we were able to hang out on weeknights and weekends. Once we could drive, we hung out even more. In those years, we shared experiences like STEM camp and grew closer to each other's families.
After graduating from high school in 2016, we moved away from home and began studying at Colorado State University that Fall. Colorado was a massive change of pace for us, but we quickly met some lifelong friends and began to share even more new experiences!
In 2017, we moved in together and turned our dynamic duo into an unstoppable trio when we adopted Walter, an LA street chihuahua mutt. We went on our first 20+ hour road trip from Los Angeles to Fort Collins through the Grand Canyon with Walter that same week and had a blast.
In the Spring of 2018, we traveled the world by sea on a study abroad program aptly called Semester at Sea. Experiencing the world together cemented just how adaptable we could be, and being able to share such a formative and dynamic experience was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. During the voyage, we officially got engaged while ported in Mauritius on March 11, 2018.
After the voyage, we continued to study in Colorado and planned to potentially move back to Los Angeles in late 2020. When the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns began in March 2020, we shifted our plans and moved back home early. That summer, we both got into the University of Southern California and continued our studies there that Fall.
While studying at USC, we grew our love for local, western-U.S. travel with spur-of-the-moment car-camping trips. On one of those trips, we created riddick & gray as our studies fueled our passions for sustainability and storytelling. After we graduated from USC in May 2022, we lived in our car for a month-long road trip to over ten National Parks in the West. After we returned from the trip, we moved to Two Harbors, Catalina Island, and worked there from June to October.
In October 2022, we moved into our first LA apartment in Downtown. While it wasn't a part of LA we had ever expected to live in, we fell in love with DTLA's deep history, delicious food, and access to public transit. After living in the apartment for a year, we purchased it from our landlord and we've been there ever since!
On December 27, 2023, on our 12th anniversary, we officially got married at our favorite park in DTLA. It's been quite an adventure so far, but this is just the beginning. We wouldn't be here without all of our friends and family who have supported us along the way.
With gratitude,
r&g
Gallery
12.27.2024
To celebrate, we’re throwing a picnic party on December 27th, 2024 at one of our favorite Los Angeles parks!
Our goal is to have a low-impact, sustainable celebration with minimal waste and good vibes; the plan is to hang out in a park for an afternoon, catch up, and enjoy each other’s company.
BYOB(lanket!) aka everything you need to be comfy at the park!
This event is an open invitation; RSVP below to receive more details about the location and festivities!
"registry"
We believe that the most important gift is time. If you're around, even if it's just for a quick call, text, or email with some fun memories, we'd love to hear from you or see you!
While we truly appreciate the thought and care behind physical gifts, we're very grateful to say that we have everything need in our 700-square-foot studio. Needless to say, storing gifts (especially kitchen-related ones) would be very difficult! We are trying our best to be mindful of excess consumption and mitigate the carbon, paper, and plastic related to our wedding and we'd love your help with that mission.
We still have some photography prints if you're local! (we can always do custom sizes and help with framing)
If you'd like to support us by funding some of our passions and projects, all monetary gifts will be allocated as follows in 2025:
Personal
Zelle: stevieandmarcela@gmail.com
Venmo: @stevie-gray
Cashapp: $MRiddick
Company
Zelle: info@riddickandgray.com
If you’d like to donate to a non-profit, here are a couple of our favorites!
These organizations and their humans have all changed our lives, we'd be honored if you considered supporting them!
The shout-out list! local org you want to share? dm us!
