Lynnette + Dane

How did you meet?

Dane and I met on Bumble. Not knowing exactly what to say to grab Dane’s attention, I leaned into my goofy humor and sent him a GIF of Forrest Gump waving hello off of his shrimp boat. Dane responded shortly after, laughing, saying how much he loved Forrest Gump and our conversation continued from there. After chatting for a few days, Dane summoned the courage to ask me out on a real date. We agreed to meet at a local dive bar in Adams Morgan in D.C. called the Black Squirrel.

We arrived at the bar at the same time and I gave a visibly nervous Dane a big hug and introduced myself. We went inside and over the next few hours, and multiple beers, talked about everything from our interests, family, religion, politics; basically everything you should probably not be talking about on your first date. The chemistry between us was immediate and we were both smitten with each other instantly.

We eft the bar and headed across the street to Insomnia Cookies for some late-night munchies. Being the true lady, I ordered half a dozen chocolate chip cookies for myself, and Dane ordered the biggest ice cream sandwich either of us had ever seen. With no napkins to be found in the entire store, Dane finished his ice cream sandwich and had ice cream all over his face.

During our date, Dane learned that I am a huge scary movie fan. While we waited for my Uber to pick me up, Dane asked if I wanted to go on another date the next day to see the remake of the movie “It” (even though he hates scary movies). I excitedly agreed as my Uber arrived. We shared our first kiss before I left and have been inseparable ever since

When did you know they were the one?

I don’t know if I remember the “exact” moment when I knew Dane was the one. I think it was a lot of his small actions over time that really showed me. He’s all of the traditional things that people look for in their partner, smart, funny, handsome, etc.; but he is so much more than that. He is the first person who ever truly saw me for me, and accepted me wholly. I recognized that something was just different with him early on and it was that.

What are your three favourite attributes of your partner?

His character, sense of humor, and reliability

Who proposed and how?

Dane proposed to us on Halloween 2021. It was an unseasonably warm fall day and we decided to take our two dogs, Nacho and Olive for a hike. We were approaching the two-mile mark and agreed we’d stop to give them a water break once we hit the 2-mile marker. We stopped, gave them water, packed up their water bottles and dishes back into my backpack, and started walking away. I was walking Nacho and noticed I didn’t see Olive’s head trotting behind me. I turned around to see what they were doing and Dane was down on one knee. I told him the one thing I wanted was to be surprised when it happened and he nailed it! It was also sweet because he wanted to make sure our fur babies were involved on the big day! Later that night he surprised me with a romantic dinner at our favorite restaurant

Where did you fall in love with your dress and why?

I was at Lovely Bride DC and it was the second boutique I looked at. I tried on 5 or 6 other dresses and wasn’t 100% sure about any of them. My bridal consultant said they had just got a brand new dress in and I would be the first person to even try it on. It was the Noah gown. I put her on and looked in the mirror and I just knew she was the one. It was almost a perfect fit in the store. My mom who is pretty traditional didn’t even think the cut was too much (which was a relief)!

What was the best moment for you at your wedding?

The whole day was a dream, but Dane and I opted to read our vows privately. It was perfect. We were both nervous about reading them in front of all of our guests, and doing it this way made it so much more intimate and special. I’m so glad we did it just the two of us.

What were your favorite details?

There were so many! Our flowers were beautiful! My “vibe” was moody and romantic. We had lots of deep purples and plums, greens, and gold accents. They managed to take the vision I saw in my head and execute it perfectly at the venue. We were amazed.

What advice would you tell other brides?

Don’t sweat the small stuff, seriously! I know it’s very cliche, but it is 100% true. I was so worried about the “what if’s” leading up to the big day that it made me so stressed. If something goes wrong, and it most likely will, don’t worry – you (and maybe your partner) will be the only person who notices/knows.

Any Standout vendors?

All of them! The entire crew nailed it!

Our DJ Jon from Lovesick Inc. was AMAZING! It felt like he logged into our Spotify playlists and hand-picked all of our favorite songs. Dane and I joked that he was psychic and was reading our minds, because he kept playing everything we wanted to hear, and a lot of it we didn’t even put on our “must-play” lists. He was just really good at feeling out our type of music. We danced all night – it was perfect!