Big huge congrats to Bachelorette Jen Schefft, who married fiance Joe Waterman at the Private Dining Rooms of Spiaggia in Chicago Friday night.

After a failed romance on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, and authoring the dating manual Better Single Than Sorry, Jen fell in love with Joe after meeting him on a blind date in February 2008.

“We really get each other,” she said last year after getting engaged. “I guess it’s true things move fast when you meet the right person.”

No, no, nobody proposed. Calm down, Mom.

It’s a much bigger deal than that.

Jen Schefft is engaged.

Seriously, I’m wandering around the Film.com offices this afternoon, and I walk into Laremy’s office to have a very serious chat with him about how he doesn’t return my IMs promptly enough (”Was I away? Did you see an away message? Then I didn’t get the IM. Because I do other things sometimes besides sit at my desk in case you IM me.”).

Laremy shares an office with Pamela. As I’m berating Laremy, Pamela gasps. Like, loudly. We turn to look at her. She’s staring at her computer screen in disbelief, like CNN.com just reported that the entire Eastern seaboard fell into the ocean and the government was reconvening in the newly-coastal Kentucky.

“What is it?” I asked, now worried.

She looks at me wide-eyed. “Have you seen this? Jen Schefft is engaged!”

I gasp. “Oh my God!” I run to her computer, where she has this article on her screen. “No way!”

“I know!” she says. “I know.”

Laremy, of course, is now shaking his head. “I wish I had this moment recorded so that people could see what my daily life is like,” he says. “They’d send me money out of pity.” (By the way, you can PayPal cash to laremy@gmail.com if you’re so inclined.)

Anyway, Jen Schefft, perpetual bachelorette and author of Better Single Than Sorry, is engaged.

Former Bachelorette star Jen Schefft is engaged to her boyfriend, Joe Waterman, she tells PEOPLE exclusively.

“I’m so excited and so happy,” says Schefft, 32.

The couple, who live in Chicago, met on a blind date in February. Their matchmaker: One of Schefft’s previous blind dates, with whom she didn’t click. “I figured I had to go out with Joe since I’d never been set up by someone I’d already gone on a date with,” she explains.

“We really get each other,” Schefft says of Waterman, 35, a trader. “I guess it’s true things move fast when you meet the right person.”

Congratulations, Jen. If it happened for you, I still have some hope for myself.

“It’s entirely possible to meet 25 beautiful women (or 25 handsome men) and not fall in love with any of them . . . in a matter of six weeks . . . in isolation . . . with cameras all around. It doesn’t mean the person is too picky … nor does it mean they are gay. It just means they would rather be on their own than in a relationship with the wrong person. A sentiment I completely agree with. [Brad Womack got minimal public backlash] compared to the negative press I personally received after announcing I didn’t want to be with any of the guys I met on the show. I haven’t seen much denouncing him as a jerk…or proclaiming he made the biggest mistake of his life and that he’d be single forever. When it comes to relationships and breakups, society treats women and men very differently.”

Jen Schefft, who reluctantly turned down all suitors on her turn as The Bachelorette, discussing the attention Brad Womack’s received for doing the same on this season of The Bachelor.