Some love stories begin on the dance floor. Others start with a chance meeting through friends. Jill and Dave’s? Theirs kicked off in 2021 inside a virtual personal development class… on Zoom. During one session, Dave sent Jill a simple message: “Good luck tonight. You’re going to crush it.” Jill promptly turned off her camera and burst into tears.
Dave had no way of knowing it at the time, but that one small message would become the very first brick in the foundation of their forever — proof that sometimes the simplest words arrive exactly when someone needs them most.
What followed were months of late-night FaceTimes, virtual taco dates, long conversations across time zones, and the very real beginning of something unexpected. But the moment that truly sealed the deal came during one especially stressful week for Jill — and it involved cake. Lots of cake.
“Fast forward to February when Jill was venting to Dave about her stressful day and he wrote back asking, ‘What can I do?’ Jill replied, ‘I don’t know, but I think cake would help.’ Sure enough, later that week, three cakes showed up at her apartment… and even though it was Valentine’s Day, David assured her that this was only stress-relief cake, not Valentine’s Day cake. After all, they were just friends.”
Spoiler alert: they were absolutely not “just friends.”
Years, countless adventures, and a proposal on a lookout tower in Maine later, Jill and Dave said their vows at The Madison in Minnesota — a day filled with both happy tears and big laughter. Jill promised not only her life to Dave, but her heart to Parker and Sophia as well, sharing that she wasn’t just marrying him — she was joining a family. Dave followed with vows filled with humor, travel dreams, kitchen dance parties, and a promise to always be her “curious partner.”
After sealing it with a kiss and being pronounced Mr. and Mrs. Santilli, the celebration flowed straight into cocktail hour and a heartfelt toast honoring the beautiful family born that day. From Zoom screens to three stress-relief cakes to forever — Jill and Dave’s story is proof that the best love stories really do start in the most unexpected ways.