DJ and Jaclyn Klein

The love story

Susie Masotti, the previous executive director of the Madison Chamber of Commerce, introduced DJ and me at the Madison Street Festival in 2013. I was volunteering at a booth blowing up balloons for kids, and DJ was representing the city at his booth. We had dinner together at the Old Bandito Burrito after we met and stayed together until around midnight. He took me out again the next day for dinner, and the rest was history.

The proposal

We both love to fish. DJ woke me up before sunrise one morning with some fresh coffee in a carafe. He took me out on a boat on Smith Lake. I was in a hoodie and still hadn’t brushed my hair. I was fishing, and when I turned around he had the ring – on a flotation device, in case I accidently threw it in the water from excitement – and asked me to marry him. He proposed as the sun was rising. His parents had champagne for mimosas back at the house when we arrived!

The “I Do”

We had our wedding at Madison United Methodist Church in Downtown Madison. The reception followed at Old Black Bear right down the road on Main Street. It was special to us to have the reception at Old Black Bear because it’s where we met for conversation for the very first time when it was previously Bandito Burrito.

Our wedding was a traditional ceremony with a rustic reception. We were on a budget for our wedding, and the owners of Old Black Bear kindly allowed me to wait tables there in order to save up money for the reception. They even brewed us our own batch of beer called the “Honey I do” Brown Ale. They even let us help them brew the beer! We both love craft beer, so we made koozies for our guests that said “Thank you for ‘bearing’ with us” for guests to use that evening for their beverages and to take home as souvenirs.

The happily-ever-after

We went to Destin, Florida, for our honeymoon. It was really low-key. We ate lots of crab legs, went to several different beaches and went deep sea fishing.

Our first night on our way down, we meant to stay in Montgomery; we were so excited, we drove all the way to Destin and the hotels were booked. So, we resided in a scary motel our first night and watched the movie Anaconda on a 20-inch television screen. It seemed to be the only movie playing. We departed the motel as soon as the sun rose!