We’re the team. Team AWESOME. This is the story of how we came to be.
Jenna’s Version:
Aaron and I met in New York in August 2009, when we both stayed at the apartment of mutual friends in the city. Contrary to what he might tell you, it was NOT love at first sight. He was cute, but in a relationship and really not all that friendly. And, let’s be honest, I was having the time of my life as a single girl in the city. We maybe spoke 10 words to each other for the entirety of our stays, until the last night when we became friends on Facebook in the hopes of maybe attending a Dodger game (with his then-girlfriend) when we all got back to LA.
We all got back to LA (though we didn’t get to that Dodger game until much later) and we didn’t talk much until his birthday on Halloween. He invited me to his birthday party (I declined, as I’m very popular and already had plans), but I wrote on his Facebook wall wishing him a happy day. He responded with a flirty note letting me know that I had missed out and, OH BY THE WAY, he was a single man now. Several awkwardly flirtatious Facebook messages later, we agreed to meet for drinks as a belated celebration of his birth. We ended up at an adorable wine bar in Tarzana, where we talked, flirted and laughed laughed laughed more than I had ever anticipated for hours and hours on end. I haven’t stopped laughing ever since.
Fast forward a year and a half – and several Dodger games, bottles of wine, and a shared apartment – later and we decide to host a summer BBQ, because we have an adorable backyard and some equally adorable family and friends to host in it. It’s Aaron’s idea to throw the BBQ, as is it his idea to have it when my younger brother is home from the Army on leave. It all makes perfect sense to me – so we plan for a fun summer day on Sunday, July 31, 2011. As the day gets closer, I realize that a TON of people have RSVPed, including a lot of Aaron’s family and friends who I have never met – but of course this all makes me very happy. The more the merrier, right? Little did I know that our humble little BBQ wasn’t as big of a draw as an ENGAGEMENT party, which is what this little shindig turned out to be. Aaron got down on one knee in front of nearly every person of the greatest importance in both of our lives, and asked me to be his wife at that BBQ – singlehandedly making it the best day of my life and one helluva way to kick off our first annual summer BBQ (not sure how we’ll top that one next year). Ever since I spent hours and hours of wine-fueled conversation with this hilarious, smart, adorable guy, I knew I’d never want to spend a day of my life without him. I’m so happy and grateful that he chose me too.
Aaron’s Version:
New York, August of 2009. I had just landed from an all night flight from LA to stay with my good friend Celia for a few days, then on to Boston for another few days (I met Celia on a trip to Europe two years prior). I was really looking forward to this trip to spend some quality time with a friend I hadn’t seen in quite some time in a City I hadn’t visited since I became a legal adult. Oh, did I mention I was with my ex-girlfriend on this trip? Anyways, we arrived at Apartment 13A on West 53rd early in the morning and knocked on the door. Celia answered and we had a fantastic reunion, and she mentioned that her roommate, Alexis had a friend staying with her as well. Cool, I thought, the more the merrier, right?
Celia steps aside and there’s a girl sitting on a chair working feverishly on her laptop. She stands and says to me, “Hi, I’m Jenna.” Whoa, I say in my head, she’s cute! She obviously thinks the same, I mean, how can’t she, right?
We spend the next few days in each other’s company, saying relatively little to each other; she’s clearly nervous to talk to me because of my striking good looks. Finally, one day, Jenna is getting ready to go on a job interview and headed to the store first, she comes into our room and asks if there’s anything we need that she could pick up for us. I reply that we’re fine, but throw in a little, “You clean up nicely!” at the end. Thinking little of it, she says thanks and heads to her interview.
On our last day, Celia, me and my ex girlfriend are sitting in their living room pouring over funny internet videos when Jenna and Alexis return to the apartment. We all share in small talk and Jenna joins us in the living room for the remainder of the night. I was busy checking the Dodger game score as they were in the thick of a Division race, I later found out she too is a Dodger fan. After looking at a lot more videos, and becoming Facebook friends, we all (my ex, Jenna and I) decided we would meet up in LA to go out for a drink or perhaps even a Dodger game, harmless right?
Fast-forward a few months, after inviting Jenna to my birthday party (and her declining, rude) we begin talking on Facebook. Oh, and I’m single now so it’s kosher. I ask her what she’s up to these days and see if she would be interested in hanging out, perhaps going out to a wine bar, maybe a strip club to keep things fresh…you know, see where things go! She said she’d take me up on the offer and we went to Vino in Encino (ha, that rhymes!) for my last first-date ever (I’d later realize).
Pause. I had the full intentions of making the night a date; she thought we were hanging out as friends. She would be later convinced otherwise.
The night that followed was (until July 31st, 2011) the greatest night of my life. We literally talked for hours about anything and everything. After four or five hours and numerous glasses of wine later, I didn’t want the night to end. I’m pretty sure she now knew that this was a date. Fast-forward the next year and a half, we’re now engaged, but I’ve known since our first date that I was going to one day marry Jenna.
Our first date changed my life forever. Jenna is the most beautiful, smart and amazing woman I’ve ever met. I owe it all to spending that week in New York in August a few years ago. I met my future wife that week.
And Team Awesome lived happily ever after…