How We Met
The Beginning: 2010, Our story began when we were younger than most. Jared and I met in High School at 14 years old. We were partners on a project in an academic literacy class and I actually didn’t like Jared very much because he never showed up to class. Little did I know, Jared got into a horrible snowboarding accident and was out of school for a few weeks (the teacher did not inform me of this!). When he came back to school, I quickly realize what had happened and forgave him. The class ended, (we got an A on the project in case you were wondering…) and Jared and I didn’t talk for a few years as we were both dating other people and went our separate ways.
Fast forward to our Junior year of high school. I was at my waitress job on a Friday night and the Charles family walks in. My girlfriend and I thought Jared and his brother were cute so we took over their table for another waitress. I was after Jared. Hoping the brothers would notice us that night, we tried so hard to give them great customer service. Not too much came out of that night, but a few months later, I started to skip my lunch period and hang out in our high school’s photography classroom (I was friendly with the teacher and she used to let me crash her classes!). A mutual friend of Jared and I was in this class and actually re-introduced us by saying “the two of you would make beautiful babies!” We blushed and awkwardly pushed her comment aside. However, we started chatting and ended up exchanging numbers. To this day, we forget who texted who first but once the first text was sent, we couldn’t stop talking!
The First Date: After a few days of hanging out in school and texting after school, Jared turned 17 and got his drivers license. He texted me saying, “Rita’s opened today, want me to pick you up and we can go together?” Having the strictest parents in the world, I nervously asked my mom if I could go to Rita’s with this boy she never met (who literally started driving hours ago)… to my surprise she said yes and I ran out of there before she could change her mind! Jared picked me up and I was SO nervous- I hardly talked! The date was awkward, Jared even dropped his cell phone IN his Rita’s and it completely died. Little did we know, this first awkward date at Rita’s started a 7-year relationship that would eventually lead to marriage.
“Will you be my girlfriend?” March 30, 2012:
Jared and I hung out consistently for a little over a month. One day after school before a big event that all students attended, Jared took me for a walk on this beautiful trail in our hometown. While on the walk Jared *finally* asked me to be his girlfriend (a month was a long time back then!), and this is how it all began. I knew he was the one from this very moment.
How They Asked
On Friday, May 10, 2019, Jared told me he was taking me out to dinner at Carpe Diem in Hoboken, New Jersey (a really good restaurant close to our apartment) to kick off my birthday weekend. We first got a round of drinks, then apps. Once our food came, they actually made my meal wrong and brought it back to the kitchen to re-make. Jared started acting a little strange, but I didn’t think too much of it. I asked the waitress to just bring my food in a to-go box so we could get home. After dinner, we decided to go for a walk. While walking, Jared set down our leftover bag and I asked him, “what are you doing?!” Then, I saw a photographer come out of nowhere and point his camera at us (again, did not think much of it because people do strange things sometimes). I turned to Jared to say how weird that was and as I did, Jared got down on one knee and asked me to spend forever with him. I was in shock!
I knew this moment was coming, but never in a million years did I think it would happen on that night! We got to spend an hour with the photographer, walking all around Hoboken, capturing the excitement of being newly engaged! Other than getting engaged, I was super excited about the photographer being there. Years ago I told Jared that I did not have a dream proposal in mind, but I did want a photographer to capture the moment.
Jared provided just that! This was easily one of the best nights of my life and one I will remember forever. I have waited over 7 years for this very moment. I am so happy that we got to make this special memory in Hoboken, since it is where we moved after college, into our first apartment together! My sixteen-year-old self was wrong about a lot of things. However, Jared is one thing I knew I was right about since day one. He was always the one.
