Marina and Jacob first started talking online at the start of May 2018. Marina was trying to play it cool, but she was secretly telling her friend, Colleen, everything! Colleen and Marina ended up going out one night and lo and behold, Jacob was out with some of Colleen's friends. What a small world! Marina and Jacob officially met on May 17th, 2018. They ended up going on three dates in one week! Soon after Jacob was looking at job offers in three different cities around the United States, and Marina was off to Europe for the summer. They kept in constant contact with each other, Marina staying up way too late to talk to Jacob and Jacob going out of his way to talk to her. Once back in the same state together, Jacob accepted a job in Palatine, IL and Marina got a job in Berwyn, IL. Marina was still trying to play it cool, but they made their relationship official on October 6th, 2018. However, Jacob always says, "We have been dating since May 17th, she just didn't know".

Marina and Jacob have talked about the proposal and marriage for quite some time. Marina knew it was happening, as Jacob went to talk to her dad and ask for her hand in marriage, but she did not know when. For those of you who know Marina, she tends to get quite impatient, so she would not so subtly drop hints that Jacob should pop the question. Fast forward to the last day of school, Marina is at an end of the year party and Jacob is coming to pick her up. The plan was to come pick her up and go out to dinner to celebrate Marina finishing her first year of teaching. However, Jacob came to pick Marina up and she convinced to stay a bit, it kept getting pushed back longer and longer, until Jacob finally convinced her to leave. Marina enters the car to roses on her seat, a congratulatory gift and they head to dinner. PLOT TWIST! Jacob tells Marina he has to stop home to pick up his medicine, and Marina does not think anything of it. As we get to Jacob's apartment, Marina decided to wait in the car. Jacob calls her a few minutes later, asking her to bring the flowers up, but she is so stubborn she insists they will be ok in the car, and to hurry up so we can get to dinner! Jacob insists that Marina should bring the flowers up, so she finally gives in. As Marina walks up the stairs, she sees Jacob sticking his head out the door and then goes inside. She still thinks nothing of it and continues to walk in apartment. The apartment has rose petals scattered around the floor, and finally it clicks to Marina. She quickly throws the roses and everything else onto the couch, calmly thinks in her head "oh s@#!" and walks toward the music, which by the way is their song "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas. As Marina rounds the corner, Jacob is standing next to the amazing creation of the Beauty and the Beast Rose, with Marina's ring sitting beautifully inside.