Our Story

Hannah and Andrew matched on Hinge sometime in late December. Her dating profile included a few jokes about the Olive Garden in Times Square; we briefly considered having our first date there, but then she wouldn't be able to meet Duke. A plan was floated to dress Duke in a trench coat and sneak him into the restaurant, but ultimately, we decided a coffee date in Fort Greene Park would be more appropriate. Knowing the holidays would be busy, we agreed to meet on the second of January.

We chose this park in particular because it was a good halfway point between our two apartments. At the time, Hannah lived in Flatbush, just south of Prospect Park, and Andrew lived in Williamsburg, in northern Brooklyn. For those unfamiliar with Brooklyn geography, we might as well have been living in two separate cities; our apartments were about an hour and 15 minutes apart by train!

We rang in the New Year in our own ways—Hannah getting far too drunk, Andrew eating a normal amount of pizza. Two days later, on January 2nd, 2022, at about 9:30 a.m., Andrew and Duke began their 45-minute walk to Fort Greene Park. Hannah, taking a 20-minute train ride, met them at Bittersweet Coffee, where they ordered their first-ever meal together.

After getting their coffee (and Andrew's croissant), they sat down on a bench just inside Fort Greene Park. Neither of us could tell you exactly what we talked about—career paths and college memories, siblings and friends, favorite restaurants and wild hypotheticals. What we can tell you is how we felt. For Hannah, it was a sense of calm, quiet, and warmth that radiated from Andrew. She laughed easily and often (crucial). For Andrew, it was a feeling of comfort and shared curiosity. We wish we could tell you what Duke was thinking at the time, although at one point, he did try to climb onto Hannah's lap.

Two dates later, on January 10th, Andrew asked Hannah to make it official, and that was that. One date was all it took for us to become inseparable.

On August 30th, 2024, Hannah was offered a clinical fellowship role at Bassett in Cooperstown, NY. She accepted a few days later, and the packing began (Duke was, predictably, no help at all). With just one month before the move, Andrew decided he would propose. His unwavering commitment to keeping the proposal a surprise made things unnecessarily difficult, but once reservations for Evelina were set, he jumped at the opportunity.

The plan: arrive at Fort Greene Park a few hours before dinner, sit on the bench from their first date, reminisce about their time together and their years in Brooklyn. And then, as they stood up, Andrew would propose! To capture the moment, he hired a photographer to meet them in the park.

The day finally came. Andrew, trying very hard to hide the ring box in his pocket, was also trying very hard to convince Hannah to leave for dinner three hours early. On the way, the photographer texted him with bad news: the park was packed, and every bench was taken. Now trying to coordinate via text while still hiding the ring box, Andrew found himself panicking.

After several frantic minutes, they arrived at Fort Greene Park. Perhaps by fate, a bench opened up just as they were walking toward it! It wasn’t quite Their Bench, but it was A Bench. The panic about planning began to fade, replaced by the calm tranquility of panicking about proposing. But even that melted away, just as the first-date jitters had 994 days earlier, on a bench much like (but not identical to) the one they were sitting on now.

As they were about to stand up, Andrew executed what could only be described as the most awkward stretch of his life—a signal to the photographer that the proposal was happening. Then, he got down on one knee and asked Hannah to marry him. She said yes!

And then they went to Evelina to eat pasta and stare at the ring together.