How We Met
I met Dan in 10th grade of high school, we were placed in the same English class and I became friends with some of his other guy friends before I was introduced to him! He stole my number from one of his friends and started texting me towards the end of sophomore year. We became a lot closer as friends over the summer hanging out, having horror movie nights, and playing video games. He had quickly become one of my best friends bonding over our sarcastic senses of humor, similar music taste and movie taste, our love of writing, and adventurous personalities. Our junior year of high school he got his first job as a rink guard at an ice rink near our school. I didn’t know how to ice skate but I went to every public skate (4x a week!) and he taught me. That was when we really started to spend more time just on our own and it was clear we had something special. We decided to go to the movies with one of our mutual friends on December 8th, 2011 to see the Muppets. Our friend cancelled last minute but we both agreed we wanted to see it anyways. I remember being so nervous and awkward both of us hesitating and stumbling at the ticket counter because we weren’t sure if it was a date! I ran up and paid quick for my ticket. We had the theatre to ourselves and loved the movie (which happens to end in a Proposal). The next night I went to a hockey game at the rink while he was working and he offered to give me a ride home. He asked me to be his girlfriend in the car and I screamed yes and literally danced in my kitchen from happiness! We’ve been together ever since!
How They Asked
Dan and I were celebrating our 7 year anniversary when he asked. He had told me that he wanted to have an anniversary weekend and so we had a Saturday full of activities. We went to brunch, to the zoo, and out to dinner. On our way to dinner, I noticed the Odeum Theatre marquis sign said “ The Muppets 7:30pm”. I freaked out, because exactly 7 years ago to the day Dan and I had seen the Muppets in theatres for our first date. I thought it was just an incredible coincidence or sign from the universe and told Dan excitedly that we should go see it after dinner! He very casually replied “Oh yeah maybe, if we have time after dinner.” We went to dinner down the street and he was especially quiet, I thought he was just rushing to get back to the theatre in time, but turns out he was so nervous he almost couldn’t eat. We finished dinner and he suggested we move the car up closer to the theatre, I didn’t realize it was actually because my mom had texted him to stall because my mom and his parents were setting things up inside.
We walked to the theatre and I said I was going to take a picture outside of the marquis sign because it was just too cool it was playing tonight. I went to take the picture and my heart sank. I didn’t see the last line of the sign earlier and it read “Private Event”. I immediately assumed else had rented out the theatre, because who thinks someone is going to rent out a whole theatre for you? I was very gullible that night! I remember turning to Dan and saying “oh no! Someone rented it out this sucks! We can’t see it now” and he said “Let’s just try” with a smile on his face. I walked in and immediately realized he had rented it out for me. He made custom tickets and the whole place had been decorated with flowers and desserts and a muppet of me that he sewed for our 5 year anniversary! I couldn’t believe he had done so much for our anniversary, for me, but I still didn’t predict what happened after. He got me a glass of prosecco and we watched The Muppets in a theatre with just the two of us, just like our first date! The movie ended in a romantic proposal scene and then the credits ran suddenly a picture appeared on screen saying the show wasn’t over and to come on stage.
My heart started racing, is this what I think it is? An usher from the theatre led us on stage and there was a table with a photo album sitting there. I started to go through it and the memories of us through high school, college, etc. Suddenly fake snow started coming down on stage and the stage background changed to a beautiful Disney castle! It was unreal! I kept going through the photo book and got to the second to last page: pictures of us skydiving from this past summer! The caption read “We took a giant leap this year..” Now my heart was the thing leaping because I knew for sure now what was about to happen! I turned the last page “Now I’m about to ask you to taken an even bigger leap..” He knelt down and the love of my life asked me to marry him.
I said yes and started to cry. It was the most romantic, perfect moment of my life, more than I could’ve ever hoped for or imagined. Suddenly I heard cheering and realized my mom and his family were there up in the balcony! We toasted in the lobby and then he said there was one more surprise, which I actually didn’t think was possible after all of this.
He led me outside and to my amazement, they had changed the marquis sign so it now read “Jen & Dan: The Big Leap Coming Soon” which was fitting because the night was straight out of a movie. Later I found out that he had taken one of my rings back in July to figure out what size I was and that he always knew he wanted to propose to me like that. So now we are planning our wedding and I am engaged to my absolute best friend!
