Jos and Hannah met on January 4th, 2024, after messaging on Bumble for approximately a month, and rescheduled a date because Hannah forgot what days they’d be out of town for the Holidays (Classic Hannah). They had their first date on a cold January evening at Bar Ona. Hannah bought the first round, which was really endearing to Jos (Jos later learned Hannah had to borrow money from their best friend, Jeremy, for the date). Of course, Jos had to introduce Hannah to Malort, and somehow Hannah stuck around. After drinks, despite Hannah’s hesitancy to move to a secondary location, they walked to the 21c and admired the art before saying good night.

Several dates followed, including a brunch date where they shared their first kiss, and a dinner date where they cooked dinner together while drinking the first bottle of wine they ever shared and listening to vinyl. After dinner, Jos figured out why people always fall for musicians as Hannah played guitar and sang for them. After that evening, Hannah and Jos were pretty inseparable. While they both knew they were pretty smitten with each other, around a month in, Hannah announced, “I’m not saying it cause that would be crazy, but I really want to say I love you.” (Hannah claims this is not saying it first). After some back and forth, Jos went ahead and said, “I love you.”

After several months of spending most evenings together, the topic of moving in came up, and 6 months in, Hannah moved in with Jos at their home on Wilgus. The rest of that year was a bit of a wash, though. Jos lost their job, and Hannah’s car broke down. They severely sprained their ankle and lost their PhD advisor. The political landscape changed entirely for the worse. Hannah and Jos were always there for each other with kindness, care, and compassion, even when things really sucked.

Together, Hannah and Jos have built a beautiful life full of friendship, joy, bike rides, wine tastings, crafts, movie nights, cute cats, cool art, good music, deep support for each other, and enough intellectual debate to keep them both on their toes. Just like everything else in their relationship, they decided to get engaged cooperatively. Over a period of three months, they had a series of lengthy discussions on whether, how, and when to get engaged. They decided they would announce the engagement with photos taken (and seen here!) by their friend and neighbor Jessi at Bar Ona where they had their first couple of dates.

We look forward to sharing this special day with you and including you all in the next step of our story!