Completely Bashert
I joined JDate in 2003, just out of college. I lived with 2 non-Jewish roommates, had mostly non-Jewish friends, yet desperately wanted to meet my “bashert” who, ideally, would be Jewish. I did the whole “not paying but looking” thing for a good long time (okay, a year), then decided to pay for 2 months. A measly 2 months. In that 2 months, I met and “met” loads of guys who just were… well… eh. Most still lived at home with their parents, and I wanted nothing to do with that.
Literally the day that I cancelled my paid account, I got a message from this “AdamRo777″ guy. He looked really familiar. The subject of his message? “You look familiar.” He went to the same college that I did, at the same time that I did. And at a school as small as Bradley University, I can tell you that the pool of Jews was really quite small. It turned out, after days (okay, weeks) of talking online and over the phone we discovered that we knew LOADS of people in common. We set a date to go out on December 17, 2004.
That night we went out to dinner, laughed, ate, talked about people neither of us had seen in years… and next thing we know, it’s two-and-a-half years later and we’ve made the decision to move in together!
Fast forward: July 2008.
On July 10, Adam sent me an email that said “Matt (a friend) and his girlfriend are joining us for sushi tomorrow night, so I got us a tea room.” I didn’t think anything of it. That day, Adam went to a Cubs game with work, and called on his way home to say that Matt had gotten way too drunk to come to dinner, but the restaurant was going to charge us $20 to cancel the tea room reservation, so why don’t we just use it? Still, I didn’t think anything of it.
When we got to the sushi place, we were led to the very last tea room, and it was already set with beautiful plates, chopsticks on tiny pink paper cranes, and water in wine glasses. I still thought nothing of it, and assumed that this was what they were doing in tea rooms now.
We had a great dinner (as always), but I noticed that Adam was very anxious and not himself. He blamed it on not eating enough during the day and having a few too many at the game. After dinner, the maitre ‘d came in with a HUGE platter of fruit and cheesecake and said that it was a thank-you to us for being such loyal customers for 3 years (Did I mention we go there every Friday?). There was a whole pineapple on the plate, and the pineapple had a handle on it. Adam opened it up, and my ring was inside!! He got down on one knee, and said “I love you, will you marry me?” I of course started crying and said “yes!” The host came back in with a huge bouquet of gladiolas for me, and the whole restaurant applauded when we left.
I came to find out that night that Adam had been in cahoots with my dad, a jeweler, for months. He had my dad help pick out a diamond, and together they designed and made my ring. My mom had known for months too! Adam later told me that when he had “gone to the bathroom” during dinner he was really going over details with the sushi chef, our waitress, and host. I later realized that the waitress had come by our table a few too many times during dinner… and the sushi chef did smile really big when we walked in.
5 comments
Oh my, such a heartwarming story!! Love how your dad was in on the fun :-D You two are stunning together!!
I love it I love it I love it!
Thanks for sharing, mara.
Such an awesome story, Mara! Mazel tov :)
Awww, i had tears, i love jdate success stories as I am one too :)
Mazel Tov!
Hi Mara,
I’ve been hearing all about the wedding from Adam (who is My first cousin) and it is so funny to find you guys on here! Very cute to hear your whole story and looking forward to seeing you guys in November!
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