(A picture from our first date, September 17, 2009.)
They Met
Jed and Sarah met in October 2007 while they were in law school, him at Yale and her at Stanford. They were on an international committee for LDS law students (law students who are also members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). They were on the same listserv, eventually played a few games of Scrabble on facebook, but otherwise had no meaningful interaction.
They Met Again
After Sarah graduated from law school in 2008, she moved to Washington, DC. When Jed finished his law school coursework in summer 2009, he also moved to Washington, DC. There, they ended up in the same social circles, at the same parties, and (perhaps most importantly) on gchat (gmail's instant messaging system) at the same time. In mid-September 2009, Jed asked Sarah to a Constitution Day Gala. (Lawyer love is so cute.) When he dropped her off, her roommates made him sing karaoke. (See picture above. Heaven bless roommates who document.)
They Dated, Broke Up, and Got Back Together
Jed and Sarah dated through the fall, winter, and spring, which Sarah often documented on The Apron Stage, a blog for which she then wrote. (See here for links to all the posts in which Sarah mentioned Jed/"Manfriend.") In June 2010, right before Sarah moved to Las Vegas for a new job, they broke up. They stayed in touch on and off, until April 3, 2011, when Jed called Sarah and told her he wanted to court her to try to persuade her to marry him. His exact words were something like, "I want to court you to try to persuade you to marry me. Preferably with your permission. But even without your permission, I'm going to do it anyway."
They Got Engaged
Jed visited Sarah in Vegas, and they decided he should move there to be with her and see what was next. So he returned to DC, quit his job, sold his lease, and moved all of his stuff (and some of hers that she'd left behind) out to Las Vegas. The night he arrived in Las Vegas, Friday, May 6, 2011, Sarah was flying in to Vegas from Anchorage, where she'd been for work. At 8:30 pm, Jed picked Sarah up at the airport, drove her to her house where she madly packed for their 12 am flight to Syracuse, NY, for the baptism of Sarah's nephew Andrew. While she was packing, Jed did something so cute that Sarah said, "Sometimes you're so cute I don't know what to do with myself." Jed said, "I do," and he pulled out a little blue box, which held a $30 ring* he'd bought at a J.C. Penney's in Albuquerque. He asked, and she said yes.** And she finished packing, and they flew to New York.
They could not be more excited for August 2011. Woo!
* They later traded that $30 ring in for a $12 ring--all the bling that $12 could buy--which she's been wearing while they make decisions regarding the real ring. The real ring has been purchased but has not yet arrived. It has much, much less bling than the $12 ring. Thank goodness.
** Sometimes people ask, "But when did it happen? I know Jed was pro-marriage from at least the April 3 call, but when did Sarah know she wanted to marry him?" She, by which I mean I (this writing in third person is funny for me), knew the day before Easter. I'd spent the day volunteering in an LDS temple, during which I realized that what I wanted most was to be in whatever community or kingdom or family of which Jed was the leader. I wanted to be his co-leader, and I wanted to see him make decisions for and with people. I wanted to raise his children and have him raise mine. And I wanted to inherit all the blessings of this life and of heaven with Jed. So I sent Jed a text: "Hi. I think I want to marry you. Will you call me?" He did.
