Our Story
About Jarod
Jarod grew up in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, a small town just outside of Tulsa. He spent his childhood being tormented by his older brother Toby (as a WWF wrestling dummy), tormenting his younger brother Nick (the best live paintball target a brother could ask for), meticulously curating various rock and coin collections, and pretending to be a Ninja Turtle and a Mario Brother simultaneously (a feat no other boy before him had ever accomplished [...]
About Lisa
Lisa grew up in Hickory, North Carolina. She spent her childhood collecting hobbies. She played roller hockey, rode a unicycle (seriously), went llama-trekking, and watched a variety of shows with her sister that nobody in our generation cares about like Three's Company, Mary Tyler Moore, and Taxi. When she wasn't doing one of those "normal" things, she was busy trying to adopt as many neighborhood dogs as possible, collecting snow in Tic-Tac boxes (in case scientists discovered that the snowfall of 1994 contained the cure for cancer?), writing entries for her dog blog, and spending summers with her family in Finland [...]
How We Met
Jarod and Lisa met in the fall of 2007 through mutual friends at Blackbaud. Jarod first remembers meeting Lisa at a friend's pool, but Lisa only remembers meeting a guy who carried a lunchbox to the pool. After much discussion, it was determined that the lunchbox guy was Jarod and the lunchbox was actually a really awesome cooler that played music. It was later determined that Lisa's insults toward the cooler were due to jealousy.
The Proposal
Jarod was originally going to propose to Lisa after paragliding over Neuschwanstein Castle in Fussen, Germany on the second day of their fall 2012 vacation. However, due to bad weather, the paragliding ended up being canceled and it was on to Plan B, which required keeping the ring hidden and protected for another full week due to an important multi-day appointment at Oktoberfest.
On October 4th 2012, after a day spent exploring Venice's many canals, sightseeing the nearby islands of Murano and Burano, and walking around Piazza San Marco, it was time.
Terrified of flipping the gondola they were in, Jarod awkwardly half-knelt, fumbled around in his camera bag, and finally got the ring out of hiding and onto Lisa's finger as he nervously mumbled his proposal. While it might not have been as smooth as a movie script, it was genuine, heartfelt, and luckily for him, met with a "Yes!".
