John and Emily grew up down the block from each other, but it wasn't until the fall of 2010 when their moms bumped into each other at the supermarket that they were urged to "officially meet." Emily was a freshman at Rutgers, and John was a junior. He friend requested Emily on Facebook after his mom asked him to show her around campus. When Emily saw the request her first thought was "oh yeah, that kid!" It turned out that "that kid" had just about everything in common with her, and after a week of back and forth messaging, John asked her to coffee. Their first coffee date was 6 hours long-- never had either of them been able to talk to another person for that long about pretty much everything. After the date, Emily realized she had missed calls from her roommate, her RA, AND her parents. They had been having coffee for so long that her roommate thought that "that kid" abducted Emily. (You can never be too careful, she was a good roommate, and now she is a bridesmaid!) John and Emily had 4 first dates: The coffee date, Toy Story 3 at Rutgers Football stadium later that same day, student hours at the Zimmerli museum the following Wednesday, and finally an official dinner date the next Friday at Rafferty's.

John had just started a new job at a start-up company, and came home from holiday drinks and told Emily that he had been invited to a big conference in Venice Italy, and, in lieu of a holiday bonus, he was going to be allowed to take a plus one. This was it, the chance for Emily to finally go on a trip outside of country. To those of you thinking, "a work conference? In Venice? C'mon Em" you are not wrong, however, there is such a thing as the Bologna book fair, and John also had come home bearing a droid that the owner of the company gave out as Christmas presents. So she decided to embrace the slightly far fetched, and ran out to get her passport. Emily planned what she would do while John was in meetings and presentations, and John plotted. An itinerary complete with the conference schedule on the company's letter head hung on their fridge for at least a month prior. On the first full day in Venice, they were to meet up for breakfast with John's team, and then go to the presentation. Emily was instructed she had to look nice. On the morning of the presentation, after getting very lost in a very empty Venice Emily and John waited for the team to meet them at Piazza San Marco. As they waited, a woman came up to them and said she was a photography student doing a study on couples in Venice and asked if she could take some pictures. Emily replied sure but they had a meeting to get to and didn't have much time. John just said sure. They ended up in a beautiful spot, and the photographer said the code word "perfect" and John got down on one knee, and asked Emily to marry him. So blown away, Emily couldn't even say yes, but the garbage men and gondoliers getting ready for the day "shouted "Si! Si!" for her. "What about your co workers?" Emily asked, "do they know?" "There is no work trip. We're the only ones here."