Jenna Johnson and Val Chmerkovskiy have come a long way since their first “official” date. The Dancing with the Stars pro dancers, who got engaged in Venice earlier this year, almost didn’t make it to a second date because Johnson nearly plowed over her future fiance with her car.
In an interview with Yahoo Lifestyle , Jenna Johnson recalled that, after the first meeting in 2013, the couple’s first official date was “pretty spontaneous.” And Chmerkovskiy revealed that the spontaneous date almost got derailed by a major casualty.
“I was crossing the street on Melrose Ave, she almost ran me over.”
After the near miss, Chmerkovskiy, by then a DWTS veteran, invited Johnson to his house later that evening, where he taught her how to play chess.
The adorable DWTS duo kept their on-and-off romantic relationship under the radar, then made things Instagram official during the summer of 2017. Chmerkovskiy famously popped the question to the Dancing with the Stars beauty one year later during a romantic trip to Italy.
Johnson told Yahoo she was surprised by the proposal, especially after she checked through her boyfriend’s luggage and saw no signs of a ring. But Chmerkovskiy had indeed pre-planned a proposal and had the ring hidden away in his backpack.
Like his older brother Maksim, who envisioned his future wedding at Oheka Castle on Long Island decades before he and wife Peta Murgatroyd actually married there, Val Chmerkovskiy had a vision of where he would propose to his future bride.
“I was in Venice 15 years ago and I promised myself that when I meet the love of my life this was where I was going to propose, and here I am proposing.”
The savvy Ukrainian dancer even had hidden cameras set up to record the poignant romantic moment when he popped the question to Johnson.
Jenna Johnson and Val Chmerkovskiy are planning for a 2019 wedding after they hit the road for the 2019 Dancing with the Stars Live! tour. While they haven’t revealed the location of their ceremony or who will be in their wedding party, last month Johnson told Entertainment Tonight that the pair has locked down a date and have made a tentative guest list.
Jenna Johnson revealed that she and Val Chmerkovskiy plan to invite her most recent Dancing with the Stars partner, Bachelor in Paradise’s Grocery Store Joe Amabile, and his girlfriend Kendall Long to their wedding, as well as longtime DWTS host Tom Bergeron.
Dancing with the Stars airs on ABC.
