They’ve Got a Love Jones: Aimee & Jesse {engaged}

July 3, 2006

I was living in New York and my friend had persuaded me to go on a boat ride party thrown (by my future fiance’s friends) for the July 4th weekend.  I was already having a great summer as a summer associate at a big law firm but it took an unexpected turn when I met him (my future fiance!) at this party. He was living in DC but had come up to support his friends. . .and I guess to meet me!  It was kinda like we were drawn to each other and although it wasn’t love at first sight (how could that exist between two people with commitment issues?? lol) there was an undeniable spark and it was caught on camera by a fellow partygoer.

July 2, 2011

We had been talking about going to chicago for “the taste” (aka the taste of chicago) for a while but this year we were extra motivated and the stars aligned perfectly. I had done a lot of planning and itinerary making with the help of my favorite chicago tour guide and long-time friend, but as things go, when we finally got to chicago we did a lot of ‘playing it by ear’ and ‘rolling with the punches’.

On this particular day we had discussed doing everything from a boat tour of the city, fireworks at navy pier, dinner with his friends, and almost everything in between. That morning while I was getting dressed for us to have brunch with my friends he asked me about my favorite movies. I was kinda caught off guard but I started listing some (with his help, bc after this many years he obviously should know my favorite movies!) and we got to Love Jones and a nostalgic look came to my eyes, accompanied by a sigh (i loooveLove Jones!) so anyway, we made our way to brunch with my friends, who were quick to chastise me and put me in my place for trying to micro-manage Jesse’s first Chicago trip.  They told me that I should be willing to go along with whatever he wanted to do, and though I protested, this set the right tone for the proposal.

What we did end up doing was going to one of our favorite friends’ family bbq that afternoon. After leaving the bbq we were driving back downtown when Jesse pulled over and said ‘I want to see something’ and I went along with it (so he wouldn’t tell on me when we saw my friends later) only asking, ‘does this something have a bathroom?‘ (I’m soooo glad I made time to go to the bathroom first!) so I let him lead me wherever it was that he wanted to see.

We walked into union station and stood in the main concourse and he reminded me of the scene from Love Jones and said we should take a picture, so we asked an innocent bystander to take a picture of us. In case you’re unfamiliar, in Love Jones, union station is the scene where Nina is leaving chicago to move to NYC and Darius ends up running through the train station to try to stop her before she leaves–ie he comes to his senses and tries to get her when it’s too late.

After we have our picture taken, he says he wants to take one of me.  So he takes the picture and then calls me over to look at it. When I go to look at the picture (on his phone), I see a picture of him on Howard’s (our alma mater) campus holding his phone with a picture of us on the first night we met.  He scrolls through some more pictures (he had ‘stitched’ them together so it was one big panoramic photo) of him on Howard’s campus and at the end is a picture of him holding up a sign with the words ‘will you marry me?’

Of course I am completely caught off guard and happy at the same time as I look up at him and he starts telling me how he couldn’t let it get to 5 years without him asking me this important question.  At that point everything kinda became a blur, I remember words like ‘husband’ ‘wife’ ‘future’ and ‘love’ and seeing him drop down to one knee.  By now I am doing this kind of laugh-cry hybrid and the people in the train station have started cheering and ‘aww-ing’.  When I remember finally being able to distinguish words again he’s looking up at me asking ‘is that a yes?’ while holding a box with a ring in it.  I nodded and (i think) eeked out a yes and he gets up to more applause and cheering and me continuing to laugh-cry.  We kiss and hug and all that good stuff and a woman runs up to us and says ‘congratulations, I took pictures on my phone!  I didn’t get the proposal but I got the kiss!  Give me your email address!’  So just like on the night we met, someone had a camera on us at the right time and captured an important moment in our relationship.

As we walk out of the train station he fills me in on some of the moments leading up to this, all of the different plans and places he had to propose, how he’d been hiding the ring, etc. and all I could do was laugh. I couldn’t believe how caught off guard i was and how much planning he (a notorious non-planner) had done–this wonderful union station proposal was like backup plan #5!  And it was also special that no matter where he ended up doing it, thanks to his pic, he was also on Howard’s campus. Howard is really special to both of us.

It was really amazing. I felt really special and now if you ask me my favorite movie, Love Jones is #1 :)

Congrats Aimee and Jesse! Your proposal story is so sweet.  We love “Love Jones” too!  All the best.  Have a Wedding Announcement you want to share? Fill out the form here.