Same Place, Same Time, Third Time The Charm

Like many Jewish couples back in 2013, we happened to meet on JDate. Back in the early days of online dating, way before the apps, Andrew and Carly happened to both sign up right around the same time. While you would attribute this to fate, it turns out that Andrew ended up blowing Carly off the first time. "Technically" he was working out of state at the time, but Carly decided to give him another chance! Andrew decided to ask one of his best friends where we should meet, and he suggested Christopher's in Wayne. Unfortunately, Andrew showed up at a different restaurant down the block, thinking it was Christopher's, and waited outside for a bit. Carly showed up at the right restaurant, and thought that she was being ghosted. This was until she saw Andrew run down the street and profusely apologized. We sat down and instantly connected. What felt like a few minutes turned into a few hours, and we laughed the entire time. Andrew couldn't wait to see me again, and we ended up at our next date at the "wrong" restaurant that Andrew first went to. Luckily this time he went to the "right" one!

Well it was a long time coming... Andrew planned the most perfect proposal during the Yee Peng Lantern Festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand. After a day feeding, bathing, and hanging out with elephants at an elephant sanctuary, Carly knew something was up. Andrew made sure that we were the first group dropped off at our hotel, and made sure that we would be ready by a certain time. The cat was out of the bag when he said that he hired "a guide" for the Lantern Festival, which turned out to be a British professional photographer from the Four Seasons. It turns out, back in the US when Andrew would walk our dog Hank before bed, he would coordinate with the photographer on WhatsApp. They were able to plan the most wonderful proposal that Carly could ever imagine. Carly and Andrew were on the "Iron Bridge," which had the best vantage point of lantern launches in the city. While focusing on lighting a lantern of our own, friends of the photographer prepared a lantern that said "Will You Marry Me" on the side. After we released our lantern, Andrew turned to his side and was handed the special lantern. At that point he knew this was it, and got down on one knee. After that, the rest was history!