Clear Cut Couples: Jacob and Zoe
Jacob and Zoe met through a mutual friend! Jacob grew up with Zoe's college roommate/best friend and had known of Zoe through overlapping social circles. Jacob asked her (a few times!) to set them up and it took some convincing because originally the friend didn't think it was the best fit, but after a couple of dates, it was clearly meant to be (and now said friend and Jacob have an ongoing fight about who gets the credit!) Their first date was drinks at Raines Law Room. Jacob thought he was picking an awesome first date spot and Zoe didn't know how to tell him that she'd just been there the week before for a bad first date. The rest is history and they have been together ever since and have shared so many incredible memories. On their first date, they discovered that they would be in Greece (on different trips with different friend groups) at the same time. What were the chances of that? So they had their third and fourth dates in Santorini/Mykonos which was pretty special and memorable!
After they got back from the trip, Zoe was moving apartments and Jacob got her an Assouline Mykonos coffee table book as an apartment warming gift, which started them collecting the coffee table books of other memorable places to them and ended up being a key component in Jacob's proposal. Jacob had Zoe's old boss who currently lives in Miami reach out to her letting Zoe know she'd be in the city for a few days and could she meet for drinks at 6 PM on a specific day. Zoe didn't suspect anything, but was originally annoyed that drinks were happening so early since she had a busy workday and thought no-one better than her old boss to understand that!
Zoe's boss asked to meet at the Mark hotel, since it was close to where she was staying and had a good bar and when Zoe was on her way uptown, Zoe's boss mentioned she got there early and was in the bookstore next door poking around and to come find her there. When Zoe showed up there, Jacob was waiting in the Assouline bookstore with a gorgeous set up leading up to the original Mykonos book Jacob had given Zoe months earlier (which he had swapped from Zoe's room with a generic coffee while she was at work). Jacob had added custom pages to the book, culminating in a "Zoe - will you marry me?" page. After the proposal, they did end up having drinks at The Mark - but without Zoe's boss, who was safe and sound in Miami. Jacob pulled off an epic surprise!
It was absolutely a surprise! Jacob told Zoe that he was taking his medical school boards on Wednesday, and he ended up proposing on the Tuesday before, since he had actually taken them on Monday. Turns out Jacob is a shockingly good liar!! Zoe thought he was studying and definitely not proposing until well after his boards, not to mention that she thought he was in Philly, and that there was no way he was in NYC, when in reality he of course was.
Zoe said, “I had helped design the ring since it is ultimately such a big purchase and something I will wear everyday, but I hadn't seen the final design at all - only components along the way. Seeing the final ring was truly such a wow/surprise factor moment because even though I knew what it was going to look like, it looked so different all finalized and put together. Nothing could have prepared me for it! I am obsessed with it!” They are getting married later this year at a golf club in NJ - most of their friends are in NYC and Philly so it was the perfect equidistant spot.