This is Paige’s perspective on her and Jonathan’s love story! For Jonathan’s answers, you can visit his site, here: www.jonathanlovespaige.com

Our Story

How did you meet?

Jon and I met on a dating app - Coffee Meets Bagel. I liked how every day you’d get a limited number of matches (2-3) so I couldn’t get stuck in a swipe hole. The things I liked about his profile (aside from how he looked and that he’s Jewish) was that he was out having fun in every picture - on a boat in Cypress at a friend’s wedding, in a limo with his family, in a Halloween costume - and he said he liked going out hiking as much as cuddling on the couch watching a movie. That is exactly my vibe as well.

What did you do for your first date?

We had our first date during DineLA, a week where restaurants around the city offer prix fixe menus of their most popular offerings at lower prices to entice you to try new places. Jon suggested we go to Taste, a restaurant on Melrose. And as I am always excited to try a new restaurant, that sounded great to me. Unfortunately, the food was just so-so, but the conversation and company were excellent.

What was your first impression of Jonathan?

Even before we met in person, Jon made a great impression on me. We matched on the app in June, but were both pretty busy until the second week of July, so it was a few weeks before our first date. We chatted here and there on the app before exchanging numbers, and on 4th of July he sent me a text that said, “Happy ‘Murica Day!” It made me laugh and made me think that he was a funny, sweet guy (the sweet part because he even though to send the text) who didn’t take himself too seriously.

That impression was cemented on our first date. I must not have warmed up my social muscles before meeting him for dinner because the first things I told him when I saw him at the restaurant were: (1) how much I love garlic and (2) that I love Hannibal Lecter. I figured since he didn’t run screaming from the restaurant, maybe he might like me. Then, during dinner, when he confused Harold Ramis with Sam Raimi, I corrected him. When, instead of getting defensive, he laughed and admitted defeat, I was hooked.

What’s a funny story about you two?

For our third date, we went to do bar trivia. One of the first questions they asked was “Who wrote Ghostbusters?” Jon and I both laughed and said “Sam Raimi,” then actually wrote down Harold Ramis. It was our first inside joke.

Also, we won a bar trivia team name competition once with the name: Token White Guys on the Wakandan Bobsled Team.

What are your favorite things to do together?

We are escape room champions and great at solving puzzles together and trivia (obviously). We also still love trying new restaurants - especially during DineLA, checking out the new Salt & Straw flavors every month, going to breweries, traveling with friends (from Bangkok to Bangor) and family (St. Louis, Mammoth Lakes), and each other (Tokyo, plus our upcoming honeymoon in France and Switzerland), and watching movies and TV. We actually recently took a metal forging class together (we made letter openers) because of our mutual enjoyment of the show Forged in Fire! Basically any time we spend together is a good time.

What’s the proposal story?

We had designed the ring together and it took an extra long time for the jeweler to make it because of various shipping delays for stones and them using the wrong metal (silver instead of rose gold) to set everything the first go round. When it was finally ready, we wanted to make sure it was right and it fit me, so we picked it up together on a Tuesday and I was left to wonder when was he going to ask.

Then, because it was DineLA, we proceeded to go to several restaurants over the course of the week. Just like we did for our first date. And yet… no ring.

Then, on Sunday, I got a pedicure - one of my favorite things to do to celebrate a creative milestone (finishing a draft of a script, for instance) — for the first time since pre-COVID. Before I left, I asked Jon, “Should I get a manicure too? In case someone wants to look at my hand?”

He said, “Why would someone want to look at your hand?”

I gave him a meaningful look. “Maybe I’ll have something on my hand someone might want to look at in a few days…”

His response: “Oh. Sure. If you want”

Despite the laissez-faire response I got the manicure. Even though, at this point, it was Sunday, we’d been going to DineLA restaurants all week, and I figured he must have a different plan. And who gets engaged on a Sunday?

So we went to go to one more DineLA dinner, at a French restaurant called A Food Affair. Me with my manicure that was taunting me…

Not just because my hand was bare, but because I hate manicures. The feeling of nail polish on my fingernails even after it’s dried is dirty and sticky. I get one once every couple years to see if I feel differently because I love the look of them. Spoiler alert: I never like them.

Anyway, at dinner, Jon commented on my nails. He said the colors were fun. I told him that I decided to take the polish off because it was distracting (both from the feel and - and this part I didn’t say - from the fact that I had gotten my ring finger a different color except there was no ring).

To that, he said, “Well before you do…” And he pulled out the ring box.

Before he could say anything, I asked, “Wait, are you doing this because I got a manicure?” I did not want an obligation proposal.

He had the perfect answer. He said doing it on Sunday was his whole plan all along. That weekend (October 9 and 10) was the first weekend since June where I literally had no plans or work of any kind - so I marked it off in my calendar as No Plans Weekend. He said he wanted to make No Plans Weekend end with one plan.

And then the actual proposal happened

The restaurant didn’t know it was happening, but they saw it and within 30 seconds of me officially saying yes, brought over 2 glasses of rosé champagne.