Mandi Foglesong was on a Coast Guard cutter when she first met Derek McDanold.
They had both been in the U.S. Coast Guard for five years. Mandi was in the finance and procurement department. Derek was an electrician. He had come by to ask for a part.
“I said, ‘I’m the only one here, and I don’t know how to do it,’” Mandi said.
Mandi doesn’t remember much about that first meeting. She does remember thinking that Derek was cute.
The two started talking and hung out during port calls on a trip to Alaska. They realized they had the same interests and the same goals. When they got back to Seattle, Mandi and Derek began dating.
Their first official date was when Mandi drove to Derek’s apartment, where he cooked her a steak dinner and they watched “Lord of the Rings.”
Mandi began to think that something could really happen with Derek.
“He’s such a good guy,” Mandi said.
Mandi, of Snohomish, and Derek, of Forsyth, Mont., plan an April 1 wedding in Bothell. Parents are Travis and Cheri Foglesong of Monroe, and Paul and Juanita McDanold of Forsyth, and Eileen Thomas and Wade Keyes of Hysham, Mont.
Mandi is a 2000 graduate of Snohomish High School. She is a certified aide at a nursing home. Derek is a 1999 graduate of Forsyth High School. He works at a welding shop.
Mandi and Derek continued dating after that first dinner together, and the topic of marriage came up now and then.
They both got out of the Coast Guard and still wanted to be with each other. Mandi moved to Montana, and one day while the couple made a trip to Wal-Mart, she made a side trip.
“Of course, I gravitate toward shiny jewelry,” Mandi said.
She found the perfect ring that was within Derek’s budget. She made him get sized for a ring, and a couple of weeks later they went back and ordered two rings.
One evening when the couple were cuddling on the couch and Derek was holding Mandi’s hand, he asked her if she loved him enough to marry him.
“I’m happy that there’s going to be someone who is always there,” Mandi said.
Mandi describes Derek as a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy who is very level-headed.
“I like how he puts a smile on my face every single day, no matter what,” Mandi said. “How he treats me is amazing. I couldn’t ask for anything better.”
Contact Christina Harper at or 425-339-3491.
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