According to The Knot, 30 percent of married couples meet online and on May 24, 2025, we'll be one of those couples. We met through the website Match.com and had our first date on December 6, 2022 at Seasons 52 at the Mall in Columbia. On that date, I (Jen) admitted that I'd had a lot of first dates in my time online dating, but I hadn't met a lot of people I deemed worthy of a second date, but driving home from that date, I already knew that this guy was second date worthy. That December we bonded over our mutual love of Christmas, and spent our second date driving around looking at Christmas lights and meeting each other's dogs.

My family does a beach vacation every year and in May of 2023, Mike joined us for the whole week at our rental house in Sandbridge, VA. It was a week of terrible weather, but Mike led us in a Pickle Ball tournament, we visited Virginia Beach and made the best of it. Towards the end of the week, Mike pulled my girls aside and told them he was going to ask me to marry him the next night. But, he began to suspect that the girls were having a hard time keeping the secret, so he quickly changed plans and asked me if I wanted to go for a walk on the beach. We grabbed my dog, Lily, and headed out. On the way back, near the lifeguard chair, he suddenly got down on one knee and pulled out a ring. I was so surprised. We had talked about getting married, but not for a few years, until after all the kids were done with college, so I was not expecting an engagement yet. While we were walking, the girls told the rest of the family what was up and they grabbed champagne at the store near the house and we celebrated with everyone when we got back. It was a perfect engagement and a beautiful ring!