Let's Celebrate!

Lauren and Jason met while working at Booz Allen Hamilton, a management consulting firm. Jason, with a few years of real work experience under his belt, was brought over from another consulting company to work on a contract that Booz Allen was taking over. Lauren, fresh out of college, was tasked to onboard and welcome all of the new employees to Booz Allen, including Jason. While making printable name tags, Lauren saw Jason's name. She was concerned that someone accidentally misspelled Jason's last name, mistaking it for "VALENTINE." Most professionals have a LinkedIn page these days...Lauren quickly searched for Jason's name. Lo and behold - it was in fact spelled correctly. Little did Lauren know that her search was not "incognito" and Jason could see her "creeping" on his page. Jason thought "Oh, who is this cute girl checking me out?" and added Lauren on LinkedIn. Later, Lauren and Jason were tasked to work together and hit it off immediately. What started out as a professional relationship, blossomed to lunch time drives, long talks about life/career, love for food and wine, going to concerts together, and more!

Over the years, Jason and Lauren have shared their love for adventuring out to breweries and wineries all over the DMV (that's DC, Maryland, and Virginia for the out of towners). Every spring and fall, there is an event called 'DC Beer Fest' that takes place at Nationals park in the heart of DC. DC Beer Fest is special for Jason and Lauren for a few reasons: It was one of the first places they had hung out outside of work and it was where they decided to become an "exclusive couple." Jason and Lauren already had tickets for the fall 2019 DC Beer Fest. Jason realized that the event was going to be a few days before their 3 year dating anniversary. To help celebrate, Jason called his best fellers to help pull off the proposal. All day, Jason was nervous and Lauren had no clue what was going on, but it could have been due to the Beer Fest buzz. It was a chilly November afternoon and Lauren kept putting her hands in Jason's jacket pocket for warmth, not knowing that a ring box was waiting for her. Before the end of the event, Jason's friends searched to find nice Event Staff to allow them to take a group picture closer to the field. Many staff were bribed, but one person allowed the group to quickly take some pictures in the VIP section. As everyone was lining up to take a group photo and figuring out whose phone to use, Lauren soon realized that everyone was taking pictures of just them. Jason slowly turns towards Lauren and starts to pull a box out of his jacket pocket. Lauren turns to Jason to see what he's doing, and out of total shock, she says a few expletives very loudly, and says "Yes!" Jason is a man of few words during the moment, but officially asked Lauren to marry him after a night of celebrating with friends at their home in Alexandria, VA.