Lemondrop

The night I met my husband, he was wearing his high school choir tuxedo and a frilly, pastel green tuxedo shirt. It was the perfect '70s prom costume. Too bad we were at a wedding, not a Halloween party.

I noticed J.B. as soon as I found my seat for the ceremony. I immediately wondered if his lime-colored shirt was part of the groomsmen's ensemble. The wedding colors were pink and green, and I worried that the bride's and groom's theater backgrounds had influenced this poor choice of wardrobe. But J.B. was just a guest. I later learned that he bought the vintage shirt at a thrift store especially for the wedding because he thought his tux was too boring. Turns out he, too, had some theater in his past.

Per my grandmother's suggestion, I wore an extremely low-cut halter-top dress. "You never know who will be watching you from across the room," she mused. The dress did the trick. At the reception, he made his way over to introduce himself. J.B. will tell you that it was love at first sight for him.

Click here to read more about the strange first date that followed.

We spent the rest of the night dancing. He was charming and a fabulous dancer. And when he joined the groom and a couple of their college friends to sing an a capella version of "She's Got a Way," by Billy Joel, I think I melted a little bit in my chair.

I learned that J.B. had gone to Boston University like me and the newlyweds. Our paths had never crossed at school because, ahem, I was a senior when he was a freshman. At the time of the wedding, was living in San Antonio and finishing up special training for the Air Force. The AIR FORCE. I didn't know anybody in the military. I had no idea what to think about his career, so I decided to think about how how good he looked in his frilly shirt instead.

During the reception, a married high school friend of mine pulled me aside on the dance floor. "You're going to marry that guy you're dancing with," she predicted. I laughed because, at that moment, I couldn't even remember his name. But I had a strange gut feeling that she could be right. There was something about J.B. that was unlike any other guy I knew.

We had to part ways when the band finished playing Donna Summer's "Last Dance." I was staying at my parents' nearby, while J.B. was staying at the hotel with the rest of the out-of-town guests. He invited me to come back with him for an after-party, but my parents were waiting to drive me home. Ever persistent, he asked if I'd meet him for the out-of-towners' brunch the next morning. Convinced he'd forget about me when he woke up hungover, I told him that if he called in the morning, I'd go.

I should have known that a guy brave enough to wear a pastel green frilly shirt to a wedding would be brave enough to call a random girl the next morning. When I heard his voice on the other end of the phone, I knew that I was about to take the chance of a lifetime on a guy whose name I couldn't even recall! But when I saw him waiting for me as I drove up to the hotel, I knew I had made the right choice.

He had to check out after the brunch, so I brought him back to my house, where he, gasp, met my parents! We spent the afternoon driving to all of the hot spots in my town: Dunkin' Donuts, 7-Eleven, the park. When we kissed goodbye in front of Terminal C at Newark Airport, we both felt the electricity. That's when I knew that he was the guy I was going to marry, and I wasn't going to let the distance or the Air Force prevent that from happening.