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“He said he wasn’t much of a dancer, so
he said anything but dancing,” Andrea said.
But he soon lifted his one stipulation. “Well,
there happened to be a big party, and it
was at the Grand Theater in our town, and
they have a band and dancing, and it’s usually
a sold out venue every year. I told Jeff I
had two tickets and invited him to go with
me. We went shopping for cocktail attire,
and off we went to the party, that first date.”
They danced the night away and that
was the start of their relationship.
Ever since that first date, they try to
make it back to the 11-11 party in Wisconsin.
And it became a special way to celebrate
that anniversary every year. So when
Jeff decided to propose in 2021, that date,
11-11, just made sense.
“We were in Des Moines and went to a
French restaurant. We ordered dinner and
then he disappeared to the bathroom and
he gave the engagement ring to the waitress.
She came out with dessert with the
ring and he got down on one knee in the
restaurant and proposed,” Andrea said.
The couple lives in Arthur Heights. Jeff
owns Gjerde Production Painting and
Gjerde Collision Center while Andrea has
instructed the MA program at Iowa Lakes
Community College. When it came time
to plan a wedding, the Iowa Great Lakes
seemed perfect.
The most important thing to the couple
was that their wedding day was about family
and fun.
“Our families are very important to us
both and we wanted to make sure our parents
were there and that everybody was
having a good time,” Andrea said. “We
wanted to make sure it was just a fun, casual
and relaxed time.”
They were married at Swiss Acres in
12 OKOBOJI MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2024