We meet on a rainy night at a downtown club in Portland, Oregon. Both of us promise each other if we hear more than one LMFAO song we’ll leave together, and this doesn’t take long. We walk in the drizzle and land in a cozy, dark bar where we talk until closing. We quickly become best friends and two years later fall in love and start dating. Joel says, “I fell in love with you the night we first met.” Jess admits, “It took me the two years of friendship we’ve had in Portland.” Jess encourages Joel to move to lovely Northampton, MA, so they can live happily ever after as The Snugs. You could say they had each other at “LMFAO.”

Joel’s scheming master plan involves a traditional Irish band, a brewery, the perfect ring, and lots of love. We’d discussed getting married before, and both wanted Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You in the End” to be our first dance. Joel secretly contacts Banish Misfortune, the trad band that plays every Sunday at the Northampton Brewery, and asks if they’ll learn a special song for his proposal. He invites our closest family and friends to join us this evening, and Joel gives everyone in the bar lyric sheets so they can sing along. When the band starts playing, we slow dance by the fire, and Joel whispers all these sweet things in Jess’s ear to make her cry. When the song ends, he gets down on one knee and with 100 happy (and many teary-eye) faces looking on, Jess gasps and says, “YES!”