It was the first Giants playoff game of 2010 and Hayley stopped in at the sports bar with her girlfriend. It was crowded and they sat at a table already occupied by two young men they didn’t know. One was Dan.
“We watched the entire game, [and] she was into it—that’s a big plus for me,” Dan says. “I’m a big sports fan.” Hayley and Dan ended up talking until closing time. He liked her laughter, sense of humor, overall personality—and her long blond hair. She liked his thoughtfulness, energy, how easy he was to talk to—and his amazing smile. In a few months, they were a couple. What struck Hayley most as time went on was the way Dan kept surprising her by exceeding her expectations.

In 2014, the two scheduled a vacation to Maui, where Dan planned to surprise Hayley with a sunset proposal on the beach—but he couldn’t wait. “What I did was create a scavenger hunt, and sent her all around our home,” Dan says. “There were roses with each clue and when she reached the final clue with the final rose, I was there with the ring.”

They didn’t start the wedding planning right away; they dreamed a little. “We thought about it in a macro sense, from 10,000 miles in the sky looking down,” Dan says. “[We looked at] what we didn’t want and ruled out a couple things.” They also took Hayley’s mom’s suggestion and selected words to symbolize what they wanted their wedding to be: romantic, enchanting, comfortable and personal, and—in the end—they feel they accomplished it all.

“We wouldn’t have met if we hadn’t been out to watch the Giants game,” Hayley says, “so in order to honor that, our ceremony began at 4:05 p.m. on the dot because that’s a travel start time for the Giants. We did little subtle things like that throughout our wedding to make it feel as personal and as ‘us’ as possible.”

The day of the wedding was perfect. Hayley and Dan had their first look a couple of miles from the wedding site with the whole wedding party there, too. According to Dan, it was fabulous and gorgeous. After the photographer captured it all, everyone left for the General’s Daughter, where the ceremony would be held—all except Dan, Hayley and her parents, who got into Hayley’s car and found that the battery was dead. The initial shock faded into a welcome quiet time, as they waited for Hayley’s cousin to arrive and drive them to the venue.

The couple says that in a relationship communication is key. “Talk to each other, get on the same page, get in touch with how you feel and don’t be ashamed to tell that person how you feel,” Dan says. “We joke all the time that we over-communicate,” Hayley says, “but I really don’t know if there is such a thing.”

—Margaret Snider