Al and Jen met online during the height of the Covid pandemic in July of 2020 while Jen was living in Stoneham, MA, and Al was living in Southington, CT. They dated long distance until January of 2021 when Jen moved to Connecticut. They married on April 8th 2022 at the Mystic Seaport Museum, and had a lovely Honeymoon in Puerto Rico. Jen joins Al’s family of 3, with Willow (age 9), and Eve (age 7). They plan on raising their family in Southington, CT
Our engagement story actually starts on our second date. We met halfway between Jen’s home in Stoneham, MA and Al’s home in Southington, CT at the town common of Sturbridge on a Thursday night. Al had sweetly and painstakingly looked for Jamaican food that didn’t have bone shards in the jerk chicken, per Jen’s request, and came up empty. We had pizza instead at a picnic table, and it was perfect. It was the middle of Covid so we had planned to just be outside, but after eating realized that we were going to need a restroom. We ventured across the street to Publick House Historic Inn and reception kindly pointed to the bathrooms. As we held hands on our way out, we peaked into some of the empty entertaining spaces, and apparently caught the receptionist’s eye. He mentioned that they host weddings and shared that information was available on their website. We laughed it off as we walked out the door, but it turns out that receptionist wasn’t wrong. We made Sturbridge our traditional meeting spot, but after our second time using their bathrooms, we thought they recognized us and decided we couldn’t go back unless we were paying guests. We started camping after that. The following Spring, after Jen had moved to Southington, Al made reservations at the Publick House restaurant, and at a special table in front of the warm fireplace, Al proposed, and Jen said yes almost before he could finish asking.