As some of you may or may not know, Dave and Jess' love story sparked WAY back. Dave went to Bishop Hendricken for high school in RI, the local all boys school, and Jess attended Bay View, the local all girls school in RI. They knew of each other at that time. Jess always thought Dave was a hottie! Years later, they bumped into each other at a hometown bar in Bristol (Aidan's of course), while Dave was in law school at Roger Williams and Jess was home visiting from graduate school. Dave invited Jess and her friends back to his house after the bar closed and later asked a mutual friend about her. Yes, that was Andrew Ricci. Unfortunately, Andrew had to inform Dave that at the time Jess was in a relationship. Over the next few years, Dave asked Andrew time and time again "How's my girlfriend doing?" Then, in October of 2019, Jess was single again (Amen), and they matched on a little dating website called Bumble! Jess knew Dave was seriously interested in her when he traveled up to Somerville from where he was living in Providence to take her on their first date. Huge for a Rhode Islander, am I right? The two love birds shared a nice boozy brunch together at Alden & Harlow. Once Covid hit, Jess asked Dave if she could stay with him in Providence because "crossing state lines was illegal" and she is a rule follower. It was a huge ask on her part, but reluctantly he said yes. After they not only survived, but thrived together during quarantine, they knew it was meant to be!

After getting the go ahead from Mark (the FOB), Dave decided he was going to propose to Jess on July 8th because it was the only Saturday that summer neither of them had plans. He didn't have any ideas of how he was going to ask her. He made the smart decision to follow her lead, though, because he knew that if he tried to plan something, Jess (the ultimate planner) would have known something was up. So after waking up on that rare sunny Saturday with nothing to do, Dave asked Jess, "What should we do today?" Jess quickly responded "let's go to the beach!", an obvious answer for those who know Jess well. Dave suggested Beavertail, but Jess said "No, I want to go to the real beach!" Dave complied and said let's do it. However, it was seconds later that her plan was ruined when she found out that all of the "real" beaches in Rhode Island were closed that weekend due to bacteria in the water. Bummed, Jess told Dave "Welp, I guess Beavertail it is!" Dave realized that this apparent misfortune was, in fact, fortuitous because of Beavertail's private and romantic nature. Once arriving at Beavertail, Dave scoped out each inlet for what felt like hours to Jess. After finally finding the *perfect* spot, Dave helped Jess down the rocks. Jess got to setting up her chair. She hears Dave start to reminisce about a Seinfeld episode the two had recently watched that described men as hunters and women as gatherers. He then proceeded to say he hunted for so long to finally find the one (aka Jess). Then Jess blacked out in shock! The two enjoyed the day at Beavertail embracing the moment alone together.