As most of you know, thanks to my constant instagram-postings, we celebrated our 2nd anniversary on June 19th. Jacob loves to surprise me, so as I was putting on my purple dress and curling my hair I kept wondering where we would be going. I knew it wasn’t going to be somewhere super fancy because he had given me specific instructions to wear something cute but comfortable. (I was happy about this since on our 1st anniversary I wore one of my “fancy” dresses. It was extremely tight in the waist and I actually had to unzip it on the ride home because I ate too much. How’s that for romance?) Anyways, I had a few ideas of where we might go: our favorite Thai place, Jake’s in Del Mar, Sbicca, Ruth’s Chris… None of them sounded that great to me. But, the truth was that I didn’t really care where we were going; I just wanted to be with him.

We said goodbye to Molly Mae, hopped in the car, and headed west. The Thai place was out. We drove down the 5 and as we exited Nobel. My heart dropped. He’s taking me to Red Robin. This wouldn’t be totally out of the question since Red Robin used to be one of my favorite places (two words: bottomless fries), but it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind in terms of ambiance. I got nervous. What am I going to do when we pull into the parking lot? Should I just tell him I’m not in the mood for it? No… I should just keep quiet and enjoy it. I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. Just as I was about to blurt out that I thought Red Robin might be closed tonight for some reason and that we should find somewhere else to go, he made a turn. Red Robin was out and I was relieved. We pulled into a valet area that served 3 restaurants: Flemings, Melting Pot, and one other one that I couldn’t pronounce. The moment I saw the words “Melting Pot” I almost squealed. But, I kept quiet because he definitely could have been planning on taking me to Flemings. We love Flemings. But, all of the emotion attached to the Melting Pot flooded me and I couldn’t help but hope that’s where we were going. You see, this is the place that Jacob says he fell in love.

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It was October 6th, 2008, my 20th birthday. I had class until mid-afternoon, but Jacob was planning on coming up to Azusa to take me to dinner. I was so excited, each class felt like a whole day. When my classes were finally over I walked back to my apartment. When I got there, there was a box on my bed and a note on top of it. I read the note. The last line said, “Wear this tonight. I cannot wait to see you. –Jacob” I opened the box and there was the cutest dress I could imagine. It was black and had a bow in the front and it was perfect. I prayed it would fit. It did. I curled my hair, applied some extra makeup, tried to think of where we might be going, and my doorbell rang. We drove to Pasadena and as we walked down Colorado, Jacob stopped suddenly in front of the Melting Pot. He said, “Let’s go here!” I wondered why he hadn’t had a plan. It seemed like he just picked it in the moment. I didn’t care though because I had always wanted to try fondue and I was just happy to spend time with him.

The night was perfect. We played. I know that’s a weird word for adults, but we really just played. We laughed and tried new foods and sat on the same side of the booth. (Yes, we are that couple.) He was so fun, almost giddy (which I think was because he was so happy that he wouldn’t be a man in his mid-20’s dating a teenager). During the dinner he admitted that he had planned to take me to a Japanese place because he knew I loved Teppanyaki, but when he saw the Melting Pot he wanted to try something new together. I loved how spontaneous he was! At the time I had no idea that a year later we would be creating our wedding website for friends and family to visit, and that he would write this as a part of “our story”:

“On October 6th, 2008, we were celebrating her birthday at The Melting Pot in Pasadena, and I looked at her across the table while she was talking to me. We had a connection that felt so natural, she had the ability to make any dress look like the most daring outfit ever, and the curls in her hair were the kind you only see in Pantene Pro-V commercials. In that moment I knew that this was what I wanted the rest of my life to look like.

I was in love.”

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After we parked, we walked towards the Melting Pot and Flemings. We veered left. Flemings was out. Melting Pot was in.

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What happened after my birthday dinner almost four years ago was even more amazing, but you’ll have to come back to the blog in the coming weeks and read “The Wishing Tree”.

***For more of our Little Love Stories, click here.***