A first date doesn’t always determine that a couple is meant to be. ButZooey DeschanelknewJonathan Scottwas the one because of one simple moment the first time they got together.

“We went on our first date. I had actually never done an escape room, and he kept telling me how much he liked them,” Deschanel, 43, tells PEOPLE. “It sounded very much up my alley and I loved it right away. I mean, I wasn’t good at the first one to be honest, but I’ve gotten pretty proficient.”

But what made Deschanel feel as though their romance was truly destined? Scott’s meticulous planning.

Sami Drasin

Zooey Deschanel and Jonathan Scott photographed at their home in Los Angeles, CA, on September 14, 2023. ROLLOUT

“The very first date we went on, you were impressed because I sent you a schedule,” Scott, 45, recalls.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God. He sent me an itinerary. This is like my dream.’ I’m a Capricorn, so…” she adds.

Unfortunately the order of events had an unintended side effect.

Zooey Deschanel and Jonathan Scott at their L.A. home.

“Don’t have wine before an escape room,” Deschanel jokes. “It’s always better to do the escape room first and then go to dinner and have a little bit of wine. The wine, it’s not great for the brain.”

“Tipsy escape rooming is not very successful,” Scott adds.

“it was like a recurring theme of these things,” Scott says.

Jonathan Scott/instagram

Jonathan Scott posted to his IG on February 27, 2020 with this caption

Four years after their meetcute,Scott popped the question in August 2023during a family vacation to Scotland, alongside Deschanel’s two children from her previous marriage: daughter Elsie, 8, and son Charlie, 6.

Rob McDougall

Jonathan Scott and Zooey Deschanel engagement photos in Scotland on August 12, 2023.

Deschanel told PEOPLE thatshe didn’t expect Scott to propose.

“Clueless. I was clueless,” she recalls.When it happened, Scott made it so the couple and two kids were the last visitors at Scotland’s Edinburgh Castle. A bagpipe band had been performing, but when the music changed, Deschanel recalls, she thought “I think something’s happening.”

Zooey Deschanel and Jonathan Scott photographed at their home in Los Angeles, CA, on September 14, 2023.

A guitarist started playing Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” which is “a special song” for her and Scott.

“I didn’t want to decide what was happening until Iknew,“she explains — before the kids pulled out a banner that read: “Zooey, will you marry me?”

And that’s when she said “yes.”

For all the details on Zooey Deschanel and Jonathan Scott ’s life as a blended family and their new dream home, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

source: people.com