Jessica's story: It was 2020, and the world was shut down. Trying to date online was just as weird as you think it’d be. I’d been watching lots of New Girl episodes, and developed a crush on Schmidts character. The quirky Jewish roommate with abs (if you know you know). While watching an episode, I was scrolling through the dating app Hinge, and came upon Yarden’s profile. He was super handsome, had pictures of him surfing, traveling the world, is Jewish…..and has abs :) Could this be my real life Schmidt? I don’t recall who initiated the conversation first, but we set a date to meet up to grab some coffee in Santa Monica. We ended up having a great evening walking along the beach and boardwalk, talking for hours and getting to know each other. I think he was a little nervous because he was pretty serious the whole time, which made me a little unsure tbh. This girl likes to laugh! But as we were walking back to our cars, he made a funny, and slightly inappropriate joke, and so I knew it was worth another date. And the rest, as they say, is history :) Yarden's story: When I saw her online profile I was instantly very interested because I could tell that not only was this girl a hottie but she had good taste in music, was a hipster, into health/yoga, a Scifi nerd (LOTR) and a member of the Jew tribe — certainly a rare find on the Westside of LA. I asked her out pretty quickly into chatting and immediately after doing that, I was a little concerned that I blew it and she would turn me down. Luckily she agreed. Phew! Because we were in the midst of lockdowns, we opted for grabbing coffee and going for a walk around Santa Monica and the beach. Though it was a chilly winter night I felt very comfortable around her. So comfortable that I felt fine with peeing on the beach when we found out the bathrooms were closed. We had a nice laugh about it. At the end of the date she gave me a warm hug and said “Well that was awesome!”. I remember thinking that that was so sweet and genuine of her to say — something I wasn’t used to living and dating in LA. I was later to find out that that first impression of sweetness and genuineness was just a glimpse of what a special person I had just met.

A little back story: A few years ago, Jessica’s oldest friend Asha (32 years and counting!) told Yarden “if you ever propose, I better be there.” She was joking…but not really. So like any good boyfriend, he never forgot it. Another side note: Throughout Jessica and Yarden's relationship, whenever Yarden would bend down to tie his shoe, she would gasp in joyful surprise and say “oh my gosh, are you proposing?!?!” Cause why not, it’s funny. This will make sense in the story... Fast forward to November 2nd/3rd, 2024: Jessica and Yarden were up in SF to visit their friends Asha and Sam, and to celebrate Sam’s 40th bday in beautiful Stinson Beach. The next day, they were back in the city and had plans to walk around Golden Gate park. Little did Jessica know that Yarden and Asha were scheming to have Yarden propose later that day! But of course like any important and stressful plan, a slight hitch arose: Asha and Sam’s babies both came down with the flu that morning, so had to go to the doctors right away. Yarden was thinking “welp, maybe this won’t happen today.” But Asha knew what was at stake! She couldn’t miss the opportunity to be there for the proposal, plus she was an integral part of the plan. Asha called Jessica and Yarden later in the day, once the babies were doing better, and said how much she needed to see the ocean and unwind after a crazy morning. So she picked them up and drove them to a beautiful area overlooking Baker Beach. As they were walking up to the overlook, the skies were so blue and there was the clearest view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Jessica thought to herself “wow! What a beautiful place for someone to get proposed to.” (Seriously, I was thinking that). As they’re approaching the overlook, Yarden asks Asha if she would take some photos of him and Jessica with the amazing view. As Jessica and Yarden go to put their arms around each other, they both look down to notice that Yarden’s shoe is untied. He bends down on one knee to tie his shoe, and Jessica looks over at Asha, who’s holding the camera up, and says to her “this isn’t a proposal.” When she looks back at Yarden, his arms are outstretched and he’s holding a case with a ring in it. Turns out It was a proposal! While Yarden was expressing his love, his voice was cracking like he was going through puberty. Those nerves will get ya. Jessica was in shock, and doesn’t even remember what Yarden said, but knows it was good cause she said YES!