A love story about a place where they say “dont fall in love there”, some disco fries, an immediate spark and second chances.

Jen and Jennaro met at D’Jais in Belmar NJ. Jen jokes sometimes about telling people they met somewhere else, anywhere else for that matter, but everyone knows the truth!

One beautiful weekend day in July 2013, Jennaro was leaving D’Jais Happy Hour (we all know how that turns out) so he was a little drunk (to put it lightly). Jennaro strolled up to the outside cafe attached to D’Jais to order some much needed food before the trip back to Manasquan. After ordering food, he noticed a beautiful woman standing to his right (this was Jen for those wondering) who appeared to have come off the beach. Jen was wearing a bikini with a white lace cover-up so obviously Jennaro was going to try and spark conversation. Jennaro noticed her bracelets and thought that was the ice breaker. He turned to her and said “I love your David Yurman bracelets”. Jen turned and said “thank you”. The ice was broken.

They started talking about David Yurman and then Jennaro’s food arrived. So he asked Jen if she had ever tried disco fries. She said she had never had them, so Jennaro explained they were french fries with melted cheese and gravy and invited her to try one. Jennaro turned around to talk to a friend and when he turned back to have a french fry, he noticed they were gone. Jen ate them all. Jennaro was pissed (drunk and hungry so you can understand).

Jennaro said “you ate all the fries??” and Jen said “yes, I will buy you another one”. Jennaro still cannot remember is she actually did buy him another one, but they continued to chat. A few minutes later Jennaro’s friends shouted, that they were heading back to Manasquan and the “cabs are here”. This was the moment when Jennaro turned around and looked at Jen in her beautiful eyes and then turned back to his friends and said “I am staying”.

Jen and Jennaro went dancing and exchanged numbers. They started dating for a few months until Jennaro called it off. After realizing it was a mistake, it was too late, Jen was seeing someone else.

Fast forward three years to 2016 and Jen all of a sudden started getting Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram requests from Jennaro. So Jen called Jennaro and told him his social media accounts were hacked. Jennaro laughed and said “no that was really me”. The two started talking again and this was the start of a second chance which dont come often.

A few month into dating again, Jennaro was out to dinner with Jen on July 10th. Jennaro thought he would make it special and officially ask Jen to be his girlfriend. Jen responded saying “I thought I already was” and they both laughed.

Then on May 15 2021, Jennaro proposed to Jen at Grounds for Sculpture.