How We Met Jason did his first two years of college at Clarkson University in upstate New York, but visited his friends at University of Delaware whenever he was home on breaks. Nicole started at the University of Delaware as a freshman and happened to be on the same floor as Mark Neff (groomsman). Mark stayed loyal to his home friends and was rarely on the freshman floor. Kelly Bock (MOH) lived next door to Nicole and introduced the girls to George (officiant) who went to high school with Kelly and an education major, like Nicole. 
Sophomore year, Nicole lived in The Towers at UD, where Jason’s good friend, Phil Botta was running for President of The Towers. Phil became a living legend amongst Nicole and her friends through his “P4P” (Phil for Prez) campaign - even taking one of her friends on a few dates! Meanwhile, Jason continued to visit UD and his friends in The Towers. Who knows if Nicole and Jason were ever in the lobby at the same time? Junior year Jason transferred to UD. He was antisocial when he transferred and immediately took up with his group of friends from high school. His high school group had expanded to include a few new faces, George being one of those. Nicole and her friends moved to an apartment above a coffee shop, Saxbys. In the year of fortunate ones turning 21, or young ones turning 20, Nicole and her friends trekked across campus to celebrate George’s birthday. Unknowingly at the time, Nicole and Jason were both at that party.

Senior year, Jason moved into a house off-campus with Shane (best man) and a couple other guys. They thought they were hot stuff with their beer wall, and slightly-above-average-for-college-guys cooking ability. Their friends lived in a house just down the street. Between those two houses, there was a social gathering most weekends. At several of these gatherings, George had mentioned this girl that he thought Jason might be interested in. Jason (thinking he was too cool for school) brushed it off the first couple times. One night, a few of Jason’s friends dragged him out of the house for a night on the town where Jason ran into George. Jason asked about George’s friend and he reached out to learn that Nicole was at Jason’s favorite bar. Meanwhile, Nicole stayed in her apartment above Saxby’s with her roommates and friends down the hall senior year. George had introduced one of Nicole’s friends to another one of Jason’s friends and they dated for a couple of months. Nicole seeing this, jokingly asked George to introduce her to a guy. George said he had someone in mind but he would "only be a good date for formal at her sorority.” Nicole figured “What’s there to lose?”. George told Nicole to go to Kate’s, a popular mainstay bar on UD’s Main Street, to meet Jason. The two met at the top of the stairs at Kate’s where Jason proceeded to overdraw his account to buy Nicole a Vodka Tonic. The two talked all night, despite several attempts by their friends to drag them back onto the dance floor. Jason decided to wait the Barney Stinson 3 days to reach out to Nicole again. They gradually went on more dates as the semester continued, both realizing something was different/special about the other but couldn’t quite figure it out yet. Job opportunities opened for Nicole in Delaware so the two could continue dating. Eleven months after meeting, Jason “officially” asked her to be his girlfriend. Five years later he asked her to be his wife.

Jason had been planning the proposal for close to a year. He met the Jackson’s for dinner in January of 2020 to ask for their blessing while Nicole was visiting friends from college celebrating Kelly’s (MOH) birthday. Lucky for him, he had over an hour commute to work every day to think about how he was gong to do it. He thought back to a trip that he and Nicole took when they first started dating to Boston to visit Jason’s sister, Erin and her boyfriend (now fiancé) Sam. This trip meant a lot to Nicole and Jason, so he thought it would be the perfect place to pop the question. He planned the entire trip out, booked a hotel room, made reservations at a couple restaurants and was ready to go. Then Covid hit, cancelling those plans. The Jackson’s had a family vacation planned for early August 2020. Jason saw this as an opportunity to finally ask Nicole to marry him. However, that vacation was cancelled due to Covid. Later in August, Jason and his sister were talking on the phone and she mentioned that she was planning on coming down to the family beach house in Sea Isle City for Labor Day Weekend. She semi-jokingly mentioned that a proposal could happen that weekend and the wheels started turning. The plan came together quickly, however they were hung up on how to cover up bringing a bottle of champagne and planning a nice dinner for one of the nights. One night about a week before the trip Nicole asked Jason “do you think Sam is going to propose to Erin?!” At first, Jason was going to dismiss this, then he saw the golden opportunity that had just presented itself. He responded with “Who knows? But I couldn’t tell you if he was going to.” They packed the car with champagne and everything necessary to celebrate an engagement.

The day of the proposal, Sam and Jason went for a bike ride to stay away from the house because Jason’s nerves were running high to say the least. Meanwhile, Nicole and Erin spent the day laying on the beach and discussing the prospect of proposals and marriage. Nicole, thinking she was clever, asked Erin about her and Sam and if she thought he would propose. Erin knew Jason was planning on proposing and beautifully deflected the question to Nicole - “What about you and Jason?” Nicole responded “I expect it will happen, but not soon, not like tomorrow”. Little did she know it was that night. Later that afternoon, Jason told Nicole that Sam would give him the signal when he wanted some privacy to pop the question meaning Nicole and Jason would take a walk on the beach, which Nicole responded “could we get ice cream while we are out?” Nicole had completely bought into the idea that Sam was proposing to Erin. She was elated at the idea of a proposal happening and excited that she was on the “in” of the proposal. As she got ready that evening, she thought “Erin is getting ready right now too, but it’s to get proposed to…She is putting on the outfit she is going to wear during her proposal.” It took everything to contain her excitement for Erin. On the way down to the beach, Jason’s heart was racing while Nicole was peppering him with questions such as “OMG, your sister is about to get engaged, how do you feel?!” Once they had walked into optimal range for photos, Jason stopped and explained that there was a proposal, but it wasn’t Erin and Sam.