Once upon a time……Jake and Danielle were in junior high school. They had both come to the new Twelve Mile Coulee School for grade seven because they lived in the same neighbourhood. Despite attending the same school for 6 years in total and taking multiple classes together, they do not know if they ever had one conversation. It wasn’t until Jake befriended a new student that joined their school and in the spring of grade 12, he pointed out to Jake that he was interested in Danielle. This is when Jake started to notice her. Danielle had heard that Jake went to church and she was suddenly very interested as well. Luckily, Danielle did not reciprocate the interest to that friend and Jake had his chance. One day, Jake was giving Danielle a ride home and pulled onto her street while in the middle of a great conversation, he asked ‘Do you need to go home yet?’ And they ended up driving around and talking for hours. Their first date consisted of Jake getting a snazzy new haircut, him taking her to A & W, then going for a walk under the peace bridge. On the 21st of September, the first day of fall (which Jake intentionally planned) he made Danielle a ring out of a grocery bag tie and said “Until I can give you a real ring” and then they became an official couple. They dated for a few months until Jake went off to Capernwrey in New Zealand. They had little contact but Jake would call when he could. Unfortunately, the long distance made it difficult to stay in touch and they decided to go their separate ways. After Jake’s first semester at U of C, he reached out to Danielle before Christmas of 2019 to tell her that he missed her. He then showed up at the mall where Danielle worked but had to track her down as she had switched jobs within the mall a few months earlier. On February 29th (another fun date, intentional by Jake) they decided to become official again. Jake had communicated that if they got back together, that it was because they wanted to get married. Two weeks later, a pandemic hit and even though they were a two minute drive from each other, they could barely see each other for a few months. They snuck out to see each other for walks and FaceTimed as much as they could. Through the isolation and the years after, they celebrated many milestones like graduations, first career jobs, first cars and everything in between. They navigated difficult times as they grew up together but stayed committed to each other through it all. On October 18th 2025, Jake asked Danielle to marry him. He had spent some time creating a scavenger hunt for her 25th birthday and got her 25 gifts/dates. She had to guess what each one meant as each thing hinted to something he loved about her. After a few months of Danielle guessing, Jake decided to take her to a few special spots from their early relationship. Ending at a playground with a view of downtown where he felt like the relationship began, he then took out his list of items and compared it with Danielle’s. Once they got to the 24th item, Danielle did not notice that there was not a 25th item listed because she was too focused on how thoughtful the other items were. Jake pulled out the ring and proposed, saying that it was the 25th item. They chose May 2nd as they both loved the idea of getting married in May and Danielle’s grandparents anniversary was May 3rd. We are so excited to share this day with you and celebrate our story!