We met on Tinder! Hannah was in Tarboro, where the prospective matches are sparse, and Jarek had only been in New Bern for six months. Because of Hannah's lack of options, her Match Radius was set to 100 miles. She matched with this cute guy in New Bern with a beard who had a bunch of pictures with sharks, and decided to send him a message. Jarek and Hannah chatted for a few weeks: Jarek told her about garbage plates, Hannah told him about Cookout. The first time we talked on the phone, Hannah was at a Josh Groban concert. The first time we met, Jarek was driving back from a wedding in NY, and decided to take a detour in Tarboro. We watched Archer for 15 minutes, and the rest is history!

Jarek had Hannah convinced a proposal wouldn't happen in 2018. The week before Thanksgiving, we decided to put up our Christmas decorations (way early, we know!) We spent the evening decorating our new tree, and then Jarek told Hannah he wanted them to take a nice picture in front of the tree. Hannah wasn't all that into it, but went along anyway--fixed her hair, changed out of the light-up Buddy the Elf sweatshirt she was wearing, etc. Jarek set up his phone, and we posed for a couple cheesy snaps. Then, Jarek started to get all sappy. When he told Hannah he had a question, she didn't believe him. But then he pulled out the ring, and she burst into tears. The whole thing is on video (he was secretly recording the whole time!) and it's both awkward and very adorable.