As an undergraduate, Jessica Leutzinger ’04, now known as Jessica Falencki, would sit around her Wilson College dorm with her roommates discussing their futures. One particular day, Falencki recalled asking, “Which of us is gonna meet our husband here?”
In a recent conversation with The Daily Princetonian, Falencki reflected, “It’s so wild. Of course, it ended up happening to me.”
At the end of her senior year, following her engagement to former ‘Prince’ Sports Editor Joe Falencki ’04, the ‘Prince’ published “Honeymoons on Prospect: stories of student engagements,” featuring the story of the Falenckis along with a handful of other couples who found love on campus.
On April 22, 2004, before turning in her senior thesis, Leutzinger walked into McCosh 10, expecting to attend a senior class meeting about graduation tickets. At first, finding the lecture hall empty, she went to Frist and asked her friends about the meeting, which nobody knew about. Dragged back into the room by a friend, instead of empty seats, she saw a balcony full of friends and Joe Falencki, her boyfriend of three years, on one knee.
The two met freshman year at a party in Dod basement. Jessica recalled: “I just walked into the room, and he walked up to me, shook my hand, and it was totally instant.” Soon after, they began doing laundry and watching football together every Monday night.
For their first date, the pair attended a Bob Dylan concert in Dillon gym and went out to dinner at Mediterra. It became a tradition for as long as the couple lived in Princeton to have their anniversary dinner at the restaurant — the two even held their rehearsal dinner and, later, their 20th anniversary celebration at Mediterra.
The Falenckis first brought up marriage and their future during their sophomore year. The couple knew they wanted to get married in June, and with a long waitlist for the campus chapel, junior year, they put down their names and a deposit for June 25th, 2005, the year after their graduation.
Although she knew they would get engaged, Jessica was still surprised by the proposal.
In planning his elaborate, Princetonian engagement, Joe coordinated with the 2004 senior class president, Eli Goldsmith ’04, to send a fake email about a senior meeting in McCosh 10. The plot even involved the University registrar, Joseph Greenberg, who helped him reserve the room for the night.
Speaking to the ‘Prince’ after their engagement, Jessica predicted that “it will be a very Princeton wedding.”
After graduating and spending a year in New York, the couple returned in 2005 for their “very Princeton wedding” in the chapel.
Recalling their wedding day, Jessica said, “It was a beautiful day. It was hot. It was really nice too, because it was the first wedding of any of our friends, and everyone was really excited to see each other again.” The majority of the guest list consisted of their Princeton classmates. Many of their friends went on to marry other Princetonians as well.
For the classes of 2024 and 2025, around 1 and 4 percent of students were married or engaged by graduation, respectively. But the legend persists that 50 to 75 percent of Princetonians will end up marrying a fellow tiger.
On getting married to a fellow Princetonian, Jessica noted, “We feel so connected to the University, given that we both went there and we share so many memories.” Having been together all through college, the two “grew up together.”
Jessica and her husband attributed the frequent chemistry that arose among Princetonians to the success of former admissions director Fred Hargadon in crafting a class that “gelled.” She recalled, “We just got there and immediately found people that we felt like we connected with. That goes for not just our romantic partnership, but also our friendships.”
Although they found their romantic match, in sharing advice for the graduating class, the couple urged the Class of 2026 to cherish their friendships created over the past four years.
“The truth is that nothing compares to our friendships with our Princeton classmates … continue to invest in those relationships.” said Jessica.
Jillian Ascher is the head Archives editor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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