OUR STORY
How We Met
George had lived on the top floor of a three-unit brownstone in the West Village for eight years. He formed a close bond with his wonderful neighbors on the second floor, Lina and Chris, who became engaged in December of 2021. On one cold evening the following month, George planned on celebrating with them over a night of fine wine and third-wheeling…or so he thought.
Lina had asked him if it were okay should her “BFF” stop by — George had said yes, and joked that she could attend the group-therapy meeting that he runs virtually on a weekly basis. The meeting ended at 7:30 p.m. and George knocked on the downstairs door at 7:31. Upon entering, he was absolutely transfixed on said “BFF.” She was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. The next five hours flew by, and George offered to walk the BFF (“Jaclyn”) home. Full of confidence and autonomy — as anyone who knows Jaclyn is aware — she responded that the two of them should instead have one last drink upstairs in George’s apartment. Within ten minutes, she had rearranged all of George’s furniture.
The two of them spoke deep into the night before exchanging numbers and parting ways. Jaclyn split her time between New York and Miami, and George felt an immediate void when she flew from the city the next day.
A week-and-a-half passed before Jaclyn reached out and proposed they have dinner upon her return to the city. Dinner they had, at a Greek restaurant in Flatiron, and a drink (or three) afterwards at a speakeasy one block away. Jaclyn playfully mocked George for his general lack of sense of direction and led him through an outdoor parking garage covered in graffiti that served as an alleyway connecting the two streets. They had already fallen for each other while walking down the alleyway, holding hands naturally. It seemed as if they had known each other for years.
Over the next four hours at Raines Law Room, Jaclyn told George that he struck her as honest, loyal, and protective. George found Jaclyn to be perceptive, brilliant, and enthralling. She moved her flight back to Miami by a day so that the two of them could go out again the next night. Not lost in all of this jubilation was that Jaclyn had found Lina and Chris’s apartment for them as a real-estate agent over a year prior with no knowledge of George’s living upstairs.
Talk about fate.
George told Jaclyn over dinner the next night that he wanted to come down to Miami and visit her — he may or may not have already booked the plane tickets before the dinner. Less than a week later, George flew to Miami to spend the weekend with Jaclyn. By that Sunday, George was completely speechless (imagine…) and word-vomited that he “had to be with” Jaclyn. Going back to NYC that night, he missed her terribly…until she visited him the very next weekend. They each already knew that they had each found their soulmate. Fast forward a few months, and Jaclyn moved in — yes, one floor above her BFF.
The rest is history.
OUR STORY
How George Proposed to Jaclyn
George is not good with secrets. At all. As their relationship progressed, the two had spoken about getting engaged in the spring of 2023, but George was determined to surprise her. With the aid of her closest friends (who renamed a group chat “Let’s Go Mets!!!” to avert any suspicion), he soon became a regular on 47th Street. Having spoken with Jaclyn’s mother about the significance of Jaclyn’s grandmother’s diamond studs, George set out to find a center stone that would both dazzle and incorporate these pieces on her hand for all eternity.
George asked Jaclyn to celebrate their one-year anniversary of dating and made a reservation at the same first-date Greek restaurant. Something was clearly “off” as George rushed through dinner and even canceled the main course, worried about timing. Throwing him off even more, the awaiting photographer texted George during the meal that the door to the alleyway, which George had checked in person every evening for the past two weeks, was bolted shut. Over text, George hashed out a plan for the photographer to pick the lock.
After dinner, George suggested that they walk through that same famed alleyway to Raines Law Room. Jaclyn agreed and together they began strolling down the alleyway towards the bar. It was at this point that George stopped suddenly in his tracks. He fumbled around his jacket before getting down on a knee and asking Jaclyn to marry him. All the words that he was prepared to profess were forgotten on the spot, as he looked up at the love of his life. The look on Jaclyn’s face was one of pure shock and joy. The two embraced for moments on end, as the photographer — posing as the nighttime garage attendant — snapped away.
With an eye on his watch, George suggested that they have a drink at Raines Law Room, to bring the night full circle. In a state of total awe and both floating on cloud nine, they completed the walk to the bar…where George had arranged for 40 of their family members and closest friends to surprise them. Tears flowed, champagne poured, and Jaclyn and George felt on top of the world. Add in their staying up all night excitedly talking, along with Jaclyn being accepted into graduate school at 4 a.m., and thus completed the best day of each of their lives.