It was several years ago when she first spotted him. They were both in the same volleyball league and she was subbing for a team that happened to be playing against his team. “I remember telling my friend, ‘You are probably going to think this is weird, but I am kind of attracted to that guy.’ She laughed at me and told me it wasn’t weird, while offering to help move it along. She is a great wing-woman. I laughed and told her no.”

But a few days later, he was subbing for a team where she plays on Monday nights. After their games, she noticed a friend request on Facebook from hi and a message with it that said, “It is finally nice to meet you!” She recalls sitting on the couch with her roommate and saying, “This. Is. Happening!!” 

I met up with Jenna & Andy downtown Iowa City last week. We had been worried about weather; as anyone would in November. But we got a gorgeous–though cloudy–afternoon and even managed to get some color left in the trees!
Jenna has the most beautiful laugh. This should’ve been an outtake, but it isn’t because…duh. It’s gorgeous.

Jenna doesn’t recall a specific moment that she knew Andy was her one, but she says she has a lot of moments where she felt he was the person she wanted to spend life with. “I remember just having a feeling about him before we even were officially dating that he was going to be someone special. It sounds strange, but after our first date I just felt like this was my person. It actually freaked me out a bit.”

Andy describes the proposal in a few sentences including a trip to Des Moines and having champagne waiting in the hotel room. Jenna elaborated with several paragraphs: “I had a pretty good feeling that it was going to happen soon and the fact that I knew that meant the more Andy liked to toy with me [about it]. 

“My uncle owns a jewelry store and Andy had picked the ring up on a Tuesday. It was fairly late the Monday night before and I had said that I needed to go to bed. Andy said he was going to stay up for a while longer. I remember thinking it was weird because it was late. Come Tuesday morning, I was getting ready to leave to head to the office. I went into the bedroom to wake Andy up and he said he wasn’t going to work today. I immediately knew something was up. I knew he wasn’t sick and I thought it was strange he was wanting to stay up so late the night before.

“I came home from work and Andy was just being giggly and being really vague on any questions I asked him about what he did that day. I started making dinner and I went to go throw something away and of course, sitting RIGHT ON TOP of the garbage was an Albert’s Jewelry bag. I pretended that I didn’t see it but Andy totally knew I saw it. After that, Andy continued to torture me!

“He started placing little hints all around the house. He left the cardboard box that the ring box came in sitting on top of the microwave, then he received an information pamphlet about the diamond and left it sitting right smack dab in the middle of his dresser. I work from home a lot so there were some days where I debated just trying to look for it but I also knew that it was like Christmas…you want to see the presents but then it is not as good of a surprise when the day comes and I wanted it to be special. Believe me, it killed me!

“Then on top of Andy teasing me, my Dad is not great about the whole keeping a secret/surprise thing. I got a phone call from my Dad and he asked me if Andy had talked to my Uncle Mike. I pretty much replied ‘Why is Andy talking to Mike?’ and my Dad just said ‘Oh, never mind!’ I couldn’t get away from it!

“Then one evening Andy asked if I wanted to take a random trip to Des Moines for the weekend. Then I knew, it was going to happen for REAL this time!

“We got to our hotel in Des Moines and as we walked into our room Andy had the Champagne ready, got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him. I couldn’t get the ‘YES!’ out quick enough, I was ready for that moment!”

I particularly love one memory Jenna shared about her favorite date. It was their first Christmas living together and Jenna was to make it really special. She found a breakfast recipe on Pinterest for a casserole that would cook overnight in the crockpot. She was worried about it so she had a backup in place with a Pillsbury cinnamon roll pack and was confident that there was no way she could mess it up.

On Christmas morning the casserole “didn’t work out”, but she brushed it off because she had her backup. “I can’t mess up cinnamon rolls,” she told Andy. They were enjoying their Christmas morning when a couple of hours later, she smelled smoke and ran to kitchen to see cinnamon rolls burnt to a crisp. “I was so embarrassed and Andy was just sitting in the kitchen laughing. Although I managed to ruin two breakfasts, we still had each other, mimosas, and, when all else fails, peanut butter and jelly.”

Special thanks to Nicole of 100% Pure Pro for Jenna’s beautiful hair and makeup.