Some proposals happen on mountain peaks, others under candlelit dinners or amid flash mobs and fireworks. But every so often, a story emerges that’s so charmingly offbeat, it lingers in your mind like the taste of a favorite jam.
For Patrick and Mark, a couple from Washington D.C., the magic of a holiday advent calendar—yes, one filled with mini jars of jam—turned an ordinary December morning into a moment they’d never forget.
It all began with a shared holiday tradition.
Back in 2021, Patrick became captivated by a friend who was reviewing the Bonne Maman jam advent calendar on Instagram. “I watched her daily reviews religiously,” he recalls, laughing. “By the next year, I was all in—I had to have the calendar for myself.”
So, when December 1, 2022 rolled around, Patrick brought it home and declared to Mark: “We’re doing this! And we’re rating the jams every day on Instagram!” Mark found the idea delightfully goofy. “You want to film jam reviews? Daily? On your Stories?” he asked. But soon enough, he was in on the fun, sampling a new preserve each morning and rating its sweetness, tartness, or strange aftertaste for their online audience.
Then, three days in, something shifted.
“Mark wasn’t really feeling it one morning,” Patrick says. “He got up to walk away, and I jokingly called out, ‘Are we engaged, Mark?’” Without missing a beat, Mark replied, “We are not yet engaged.”
The exchange, lighthearted as it was, sparked a flurry of questions from their Instagram followers: Wait… are you two getting engaged? Should you be?! Patrick took the question to heart.
Later that week, while visiting family in Chicago, he found himself in the kitchen with his mom. “Should I propose?” he asked casually. Her reaction was anything but. “YES,” she exclaimed, practically jumping out of her chair. That very day, they headed to the mall and picked out a ring.
Meanwhile, Mark remained blissfully unaware.
The morning of the big moment was comically chaotic. Mark was tied up in an unexpectedly long work call—what was supposed to be 30 minutes stretched into more than two hours. He wandered the house in pajamas and AirPods, while Patrick, dressed in a turtleneck and suspiciously showered early, anxiously waited with his parents and sisters around the kitchen table.
“The longer the call went on, the more I kept thinking, this is the most real proposal planning I’ve ever done,” Patrick laughs. He had already hidden the ring box behind the day’s advent calendar door, tucked beside the jam.
Finally, Mark wrapped up his call. The couple turned on the camera to film their daily review. “It’s day 19,” Patrick announced, playing it cool. “It’s a special day—we haven’t had a 10/10 jam yet, so fingers crossed.”
Then, he turned to Mark and pulled out the ring.
“I was completely stunned,” Mark says. “It was so him. So perfectly Patrick. And yes, of course I said yes.”
The day’s jam? Ironically underwhelming. “Orange cinnamon spice,” Patrick says, grimacing. “Not a fan.” Mark agrees: “A little too bitter for such a sweet moment.”
Still, the joy of the occasion was undeniable. And their sense of play carried all the way through their wedding planning. For their reception place settings, the couple used Bonne Maman mini jam jars, each labeled with guests’ names—a nod to the sweet tradition that started it all.
When asked about the decision to propose with a jam calendar, Patrick shrugs with a smile: “We could’ve done something more traditional, but that wouldn’t have been us. This? This was perfectly us.”
Their story is a reminder that love doesn’t always need grandeur or spectacle. Sometimes, it just needs a bit of thought, a dash of humor, and maybe—just maybe—a spoonful of jam.
As we close this sweet chapter, we can’t help but wonder: What’s the most memorable or creative proposal you’ve heard of? Whether it involved a hiking trail, a crowded street, or a quiet moment over morning coffee, it’s often the thought and heart behind it that makes it unforgettable.
And in Patrick and Mark’s case, love came not in a flash but in a jar—one tiny lid at a time.
