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"The weather&amp;amp;#8217;s warming up, layers are shedding, and I&amp;amp;#8217;m in the mood for lovvve. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t know about you guys, but I LOVE love in the summer. I&amp;amp;#8217;m extra sentimental when it comes to dates, memories made outdoors, and planning impromptu weekend getaways with my man (I&amp;amp;#8217;m already counting down to our Memorial Day trip!). That&amp;amp;#8217;s why I thought it was about that time again: Let&amp;amp;#8217;s showcase a real-life love story! Smitten, meet newlyweds Nikki, 29, and Jonathan, 33. She&amp;amp;#8217;s a sales manager for Alice &amp;amp; Trixie, and he&amp;amp;#8217;s a business development manager for a private security company (and former Marine!). This sweet couple talked to me about how they met, how Jonathan proposed, and how things are going since getting married. The catch? I interviewed them separately to get a real he-said/she-said account of their love-story-in-the-making. They&amp;amp;#8217;ve been together for nearly four years, and their story is sure to get you in the mood for date night. How did you guys first meet? Jonathan: We met at a bar called Zanzibar. I was out on a guys&amp;#x27; night when we saw this super-hot chick looking grumpy at the bar. My buddy told her I was in the Marines and she should talk to me. Little did he know she was a hippie. I started talking to her because she was at a bachelorette party and had a deck of cards that had random tasks to get people to do. She was trying to get me to give her my watch, which would have earned 30 points (I still have the card), but I&amp;#x27;m pretty sure I didn&amp;#x27;t even have one on. Anyway, we chatted, and she thought I just wanted to hang as buds at a baseball game or something so when I asked her for her phone number she came up with like 43 excuses. I pleaded and said all my friends would make fun of me if I got shot down. Then I guessed she was Greek and that she liked Ray Lamontagne (which later became our wedding song), and she finally caved. Pain from Day 1!!! Nikki: WELL...this is kind of a long story. I was at a bachelorette party and our last stop was Zanzibar. The night was winding down, and this guy at the bar would not leave me alone. My girlfriend even told him I was pregnant, and he pulled out his phone, showed me pics of his kids, and told me he would raise mine!! So finally this other guy sat next to me at the bar and I leaned over and said, &amp;amp;#8220;pretend you know me please!&amp;amp;#8221;. I chatted with this guy for a while,and eventually the stalker left. I thanked the stranger and got up to return to my party. He said, &amp;quot;Wait, I want you to meet my friend. He&amp;#x27;s a Marine.&amp;quot; I said no thanks. (I was a big hippie at the time and would never consider dating someone in the military.) So I got up, and my girlfriends were talking to a group of guys. I joined the conversation, and they were great! Having the best time! One of them wasn&amp;#x27;t talking and was STARING at me...finally he goes, &amp;amp;#8220;Are you Greek?&amp;amp;#8221;. I thought he was so creepy. I kept talking to the group and then decided it was time to leave. I was sitting by the exit waiting for one of my friends, and the creepy guy came up and asked me for my number. I said no thanks. He asked again and again and I said no thanks. Then he said, &amp;quot;All my friends are going to make fun of me. They told me I should ask you.&amp;quot; I felt SO bad so I told him to give me his. He said he knew I wouldn&amp;#x27;t call and got up looking so defeated so I said OK...here. He asked if he should call me or text me. Text. How long? 48 hours. 42 hours later I got a text...&amp;quot;I know it hasn&amp;#x27;t quite been 48 hours but...&amp;quot; Tell me about your first date. Jonathan: I think it was a restaurant in her hood. I thought it went great, but I don&amp;#x27;t think she did. Nikki: So the text came and he asked me when I could hang out. I was a wild child back in those days and never made plans so I said I didn&amp;#x27;t know...I was going out of town over the weekend...lots to do, blah blah. He said, &amp;amp;#8220;SWhat are you doing tonight?&amp;amp;#8221; and I responded, &amp;amp;#8220;Ah F it. Fly by the seat, right?&amp;amp;#8221; I told him I had to walk my dog and I could meet him in 20 minutes...so that&amp;#x27;s what we did. We went to a restaurant in my neighborhood, nothing fancy. I had two beers and French fries. I thought he was strange, but the thing we actually did vibe on was music. My favorite musician is Ray Lamontagne, and at the time he was really obscure, but Jonathan knew him and loved him. That was really the only common ground that we had back then, but it was kind of huge because we&amp;#x27;re both obsessed. After dinner, we went for a walk on the East Side. It wasn&amp;#x27;t romantic or anything, but I thought he was sweet and that was as far as my mind went. How long after the first date did you guys officially become boyfriend and girlfriend? Jonathan: About two months. I asked her if we could make things official and she waited two days to give me an answer. It was after a Donna Summer concert at Coney Island and she just said, &amp;quot;OK&amp;quot; as we were falling asleep. With no context, she was answering a question that had been asked two days prior. Imagine it, we&amp;#x27;re just lying there silently and she says OK. I&amp;#x27;m not sure how I determined exactly what it was that she was answering. Nikki: Well, I did this thing for the first month and a half where every time anything got serious between us I would break things off. Like it wouldn&amp;#x27;t be a fight or anything, I&amp;#x27;d just tell him I was going home, and he&amp;#x27;d ask if he could see me the next day, and I would say no. He&amp;#x27;d ask when he could see me and I&amp;#x27;d just shake my head or something. So the last time that happened it was in the morning. He texted me all day, and I think I just ignored it. That night he called and asked if he could come over. I said no. Then he asked if he could just drive over and we&amp;#x27;d go for a ride. I agreed. We were driving and talking about relationships and our relationships and why I didn&amp;#x27;t want to move forward, and finally he pulled the car over, looked at me and said, &amp;quot;Look, if you give this a try&amp;amp;mdash;if you do this with me&amp;amp;mdash;I don&amp;#x27;t see a reason why we would break up. Ever.&amp;quot; I was like...you mean you think we&amp;#x27;ll get married?!?! And he said something like...&amp;quot;I can&amp;#x27;t see why this would ever end.&amp;quot; I was so taken aback by how sure he was that I kind of said to myself...maybe he knows something I don&amp;#x27;t. So that was pretty much it. I do think we talked about it a couple days later and actually said, OK, girlfriend/boyfriend. When did you know you were in love? Jonathan: I&amp;#x27;ve tried to remember exactly when it was, but I can&amp;#x27;t place it, which leads me to believe that it was too early for me to even realize that I was in love with this girl. I remember early on telling her that I couldn&amp;#x27;t &amp;quot;imagine a reason that we&amp;#x27;d break up...as in ever.&amp;quot; Nikki: The moment I knew I loved him was also the moment that I knew I would spend my life with him. We were driving back to NYC from Albany, where he had just met my parents. I love my family SO much, and every time I brought a boyfriend around them, it felt a little strained. The dynamic just wasn&amp;#x27;t the same when someone else was with us, but with Jonathan it was just perfect. Over the weekend we all laughed so much, and looking back I think my parents, just like Jonathan, knew something I didn&amp;#x27;t because from Day 1 they were on board with this relationship (they NEVER were before). So we were driving back to New York and talking and talking, and then finally we both got quiet. We were holding hands, I was staring out the window, and I felt a way that I never had before. I realized that having him and my family together was the first time I had ever felt like there was no where else in the world I&amp;#x27;d rather be. It just felt like...Wow&amp;amp;#133;this is it. This is what people talk about. How did Jonathan propose? Jonathan: I nailed it. That&amp;#x27;s how. Nikki: I always wore his dog tags from the Marines, so for my birthday he had a miniature dog tag made with the letter N. One Sunday, after church, he said he wanted to take the dogs to the park and take a family photo. We were on the walking path on the west side of the park and he said, &amp;quot;Hold on a second, this is Bruiser&amp;amp;#8217;s favorite spot. Let&amp;#x27;s let him play here for a second.&amp;quot; Then he pulled something out of his pocket and before he handed it to me he said, &amp;amp;#8220;this isn&amp;#x27;t a ring, it&amp;#x27;s just a present&amp;#x27;. I opened it and it was a matching piece to my N dog tag but this one had the letter F. He asked if I knew what it meant and I said &amp;amp;#8220;Yes; you want me marry me someday and then my initials will be N.F.&amp;amp;#8221; I thought it was a promise. But as I was putting the tag back in its bag, he reached into his other pocket and pulled out a box. He said, &amp;quot;That&amp;#x27;s not a ring, but this is a ring. Then he got down on his knee and told me that if I said yes he would love me for the rest of my life. I started like crying and hyperventilating! Tell me about the wedding! Nikki: The wedding was amazing. We didn&amp;#x27;t get too crazy about the planning because we knew that at the end it was about the marriage, not the event so when we got to the actual wedding it just felt like an amazing party. Jonathan is traditional and conservative, and I&amp;#x27;m earthier and free-spirited, so we definitely had to find ways to meet in the middle. In the end we got married in a church and then had our reception in an old rustic inn on the lake. It had two themes...1) Liz Taylor goes to a wood cabin with her lover (because she did used to go stay at that inn in the 60&amp;amp;#8217;s and I wanted something glam and rustic) and 2) Mexican (because Jonathan is). So we had amazing, traditional, gourmet Mexican food, a margarita bar, churros...it was kind of great. We also played some Greek music, and Greeks throw money at the couple when they dance, so there were dollar bills all over the floor...all of our friends are American, so they thought it was hilarious. Our first dance was to a fast song by Ray Lamontagne (our favorite) and we like jammed it out. It was definitely unusual but so us. What was so cute to me was that I hadn&amp;#x27;t dreamed much of my wedding if at all when I was little, but Jonathan HAD! I wanted to wear something outside-the-box and get married under a tree, but I soon realized that my hubby had different ideas. He wanted me in a fitted white dress, so I got one. I figured since I didn&amp;#x27;t have a dream about what I would look like I could at least fulfill his. It was the sweetest day. :) How have things changed since getting married? Jonathan: Since we walked around the altar in front of everyone we love (and a few people we barely like), things seem very permanent. It&amp;#x27;s a really good feeling to know she&amp;#x27;ll always be there no matter how fat or poor I get. Nikki: Right away things felt different. Even though we were committed for a long time before we got married, there was a security that just kind of appeared in the relationship. I don&amp;#x27;t think I ever processed what marriage would mean until after the wedding. For so long I was caught up in dating, then being engaged, then wedding planning. I never really stopped and took a breath. It was always him, so I didn&amp;#x27;t see why I had to. But now that I know this is forever, everything feels like it&amp;#x27;s turned up a notch. The happiness is even happier and the fights hurt even more. But in the back of my mind I know that he and I are doing this together...forever! Where do you see yourself and your relationship in five years? Jonathan: Three babies. I&amp;#x27;m running my company. She&amp;#x27;s filling me with great ideas. Sex life is awesome. Maybe she works, but maybe she doesn&amp;#x27;t. Whatever she wants. I have a feeling she&amp;#x27;d get bored if she didn&amp;#x27;t. Nikki: Even more in love then we are now! I think we&amp;#x27;ll have a baby and that we&amp;#x27;ll love it a disgusting amount and that everything will be the same but instead of sitting on the couch with two dogs it will be us, two dogs, and a baby. Tell me about your pups! Jonathan: We have two awesome dogs named Sunshine and Bruiser. Nikki does entire conversations in their voices. The long-haired Chihuahua has a posh British accent (even though his roots are clearly Mexican), struggles with substance abuse, and is an accomplished writer who was damaged by his father (me) going to fight in the great war. His name is Sunshine but prefers Sun W. Shine when addressed in public. Bruiser is a really clumsy bulldog with tons of energy and a cockney accent. Sunshine often plots his demise and uses him for menial tasks such as transcription and intimidation of his enemies. Bruiser idolizes Sunshine. Sunshine can take or leave Bruiser. All right, what&amp;amp;#8217;d I tell you? Nikki and Jonathan are just too cute. How sweet is it to hear the same story from two different perspectives? Love it! Are you feeling romantic now too? Wanna hear more How We Met stories or tell me your story? Email me!"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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