Technically, we met in pre-school, although we don't remember it and weren't aware of it until after we started dating. We were going through preschool photos that Jake's mom had and found Maureen front and center in one of them. We grew up in the same town, friendly with each other but never friends. It wasn't until Jake reached out, many times, years after college that Maureen finally agreed to hang out. He came to visit her one weekend while she was living and working in Harrisonburg and the rest was history.

On a somewhat spontaneous trip to Paris, we were wandering around Paris in the freezing cold late at night and found ourselves on the lawn in front of the Eiffel tower. Much to our dismay, the lawn was fenced off to have work done on it. Then we noticed a spot where someone had torn down part of the fence, and we took that as our opportunity to take photos. After taking pictures in front of the twinkling tower, Maureen was ready to seek warmth indoors. Jake then stopped Maureen from running off, and when Maureen turned around Jake had a ring box in his hand. Next thing we knew, we were engaged and the frosty air was forgotten.