Our Story
How We Met
We met at Union Park Middle School in Orlando, Florida. Jessica was in her first year teaching at that school, after teaching for 2 years at another middle school in the area. Garrett switched to UPMS from a local area high school. Jessica was keeping score at a student volleyball game and Garrett came to watch the game with some coworkers. Garrett offered to buy Jessica a water, not knowing she could have gotten it for free for working at the game. A few weeks later, they went on their first date.
Our First Date
If you ask Garrett, Jessica asked him out. If you ask Jessica, Garrett asked himself out. Being the school's "computer guy," Garrett came in to Jessica's classroom one day to "fix her computer." While she was teaching, Garrett got into Jessica's email account and sent himself an email under her name saying that they should go out Friday night. As he left, he told Jessica to check her "sent items" in her email.
That Friday night, they went to dinner at a small Thai restaurant and then to SAKS Comedy Lab in downtown Orlando.
The rest is history.
The Proposal
We got engaged on December 13, 2007, just three days before our one year anniversary.
After school on that Wednesday, Jessica and Garrett went straight to the gym. They didn't stay too long because they had reservations at Seasons 52 later that evening. Jessica was under the impression it was a "just because" dinner.
As they were getting ready, Garrett sat on the bed and told Jessica to "pick a hand." After 3 guesses, he finally revealed the beautiful engagement ring. He proposed, she said yes, and they went to dinner. And yes, Garrett asked her father's permission first.
It was a totally random night to propose, which surprised Jessica. It turns out that earlier that week, Garrett drove all the way down to Ft. Lauderdale and back to pick up the ring. Jessica was under the impression that he went to a tech training downtown.