Depending on who you ask, there is more than one day that could be considered "the day we met." 1. Angelina and Jillian were studying for a math test in study room of Angelina's dorm. Dan lived in the same building and claims to have been in that same study room studying for the same test. Rumor has it that Angelina and Jillian were going through the examples too quickly but Jillian doesn't recall him being in the room. Oops! 2. Angelina texted Jillian asking if Dan could tag along with her group of friends to the fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July. Jillian said that would be ok and spent most of the evening talking to Dan. Things quickly took off after that evening and Jillian much prefers this version of the story.

While Jillian's two stories were correct, there is a lot missing. We did meet through our mutual friend, Angelina. Our first time meeting was in the study room of Angelina and I's dorm building. A bunch of us floor-mates were studying for a calculus test and Jillian joined along. By the time we all called it quits, it was pretty late. Angelina walked Jillian to the bus stop so she could head back to her dorm across campus. I wanted to walk them both to make sure they were safe but apparently decided that my bed was much more important at the time. During the next few months, we had a few encounters. Angelina went to Texas for spring break that first year and I later photoshopped a photo of her and Jillian into O-H-I-O. At the start of the next year, Angelina and I were hanging out. She needed a textbook from Jillian so we grabbed her key and raided her dorm room. It wasn't until the following summer that we spent some time together. Angelina invited me along to go to Columbus' 4th of July fireworks downtown. I was alone and all the rest of our friends were out of town for the summer so I said sure why not! Conveniently, whether on purpose or not, Angelina either had to go home or was stuck at home and couldn't attend. She said that her friends were still up for me joining them. So I did. Jillian was one of the friends in the group. The walk downtown and the fireworks were fun but it wasn't until the walk back to campus where Jillian and I really hit it off. We pretty much talked (she will admit she talked my ear off) the entire way back to campus and has been talking my ear off ever since! While with friends at the Ohio State fair, I convinced Jillian to go on a ride called the Zipper. Jillian, who was scared out of her pants, agreed. After the ride was over and they were sitting in limbo as other cars of the ride were unloaded, I asked Jillian if "we could make this Facebook official". Jillian smiled and said yes.

The proposal idea really started when Dan invited Jillian's Dad, Larry, out for a few beers, and to ask for his approval for asking Jillian to marry him. Larry mentioned that him and his brothers always talked about how cool a proposal would be during a certain gathering. Dan pondered other ideas around the gathering, he decided that Larry's idea would be great because Jillian's whole family would be involved. This past summer, Jillian and Dan took the day off work so they could help the community of Praha, Texas put together the picnic. Jillian's family had always helped with this picnic for generations and her family always attended and helped out. The night prior, Dan strategically had to run to the store for some Advil and dropped the ring off with Jessi, who would be coming later in the day. The morning came and after 8 hours of frying chicken, they ate, changed and joined in the picnic's festivities. After careful coordination with her family throughout the day, Dan and Jillian's family finalized plan. As the plan was about to be executed, Jillian managed to have 1000 things come up so that they couldn't even execute it. Finally Dan got Jillian to join him on the dance floor. Knowing that Dan is a terrible dancer, she was shocked that he wanted to polka dance. After a few dances, Dan flashed a signal to her family that the next time around the dance floor he would do it. With the background music of accordions and clarinets, tons or people dancing and right in front of her family, Dan stopped dropped to one knee, showed her the ring and asked Jillian "Can we make this Facebook official again, Will you marry me?" She said yes, Dan put the ring on her finger and then got up and continued to finish off the dance. After the dance, Jillian and Dan were congratulated by her family. The polka band playing at the time called them over where they announced the engagement in front of the thousands in attendance at the picnic.