Elyse Porterfield, AKA Dry Erase Jenny, Gets Engaged

How did you guys get engaged?
We were at Jesse Csincsak's wedding, Jesse from 'The Bachelor,' and Ann Lueders' in Las Vegas on August 28. We were there at the Rumor Hotel. After the ceremony and the reception we went back to the hotel room to get changed to go out to the club everyone was going out to and, uh, I came out of the bathroom and he was standing there. He's like, "Elyse, I need to talk to you." I'm like, "Uh-oh, what?" I seriously had no idea, and he continued to profess his love for me and got down on one knee and asked me. I was crying and I said yes, of course, and the rest is history.

How long have you been together?
We've been together almost a year and a half, and we moved out here the same time, so it's been really nice having someone out here.

Tell us about the wedding.
As far as the wedding goes, we're probably gonna have it in Colorado and we're trying to get this band, they're called the Infamous Stringdusters. They're pretty cool, they're bluegrass, which is so funny. People are like, "Elyse, really?" But they're fantastic; they're incredible musicians. The wedding is probably gonna be [in] March or April and that's dependent on them now. I was like, "If they can't make it maybe we can just get John [Mayer] there, play a few songs." I'm sure he'd love to come to Colorado. It's gonna be crazy trying to balance career right now with wedding plans.


So, what's hopefully next for you?
Well, obviously the ultimate goal is feature films. That's where I want to be, either that or I'd love to have a regular role on a television series. It's funny, it's all settled down, but every week there's something new, and that's amazing. I got the e-mail from E! two weeks ago and I met with them last week and I got an e-mail from TLC last week, so I'm meeting with them tomorrow. But that's more about the wedding.

How did they even find about it?
I think they were following me on Twitter, [but] I honestly don't know for sure. But they contacted me and I was like, "Yeah, let's figure something out." It's funny, because normally I wouldn't really want to do reality TV, but I think doing something on TLC would be really fun.

Would you be comfortable with a camera following you?
Oh yeah. If there's a house camera I'm one of those people that's always in front of it. I have no problem with that. [Laughs] That's one thing I'd like people to know, if it sounds fun and exciting I'll go for it. I do this because I love it.

How often do you still get recognized?
It's funny because every day people look at me and it's almost like one of those things: "Have I met her before? Where do I knew her from?" Not necessarily, "Oh, that's Elyse Porterfield, that's the dry-erase girl." I get that a lot and I like it cause I don't get bothered that way. All my Facebook friends and fans, they're really cool, they're awesome, so that makes it really fun.



So, what was the first autograph request you got?
Oh gosh. I've had people e-mail me, Facebook me wanting me to send them one and I'm like, "Maybe someday. I'm a little lazy for that." [Laughs] Actually, my favorite, my little brother, he's a sophomore in high school, one of his friends, the girl's a senior, she's like super-popular, cheerleader, gorgeous, he comes home and he goes, "She wants your autograph." I was like, "Okay, you gotta give it to her." And I love that.

See, that's different though, if you can help your little brother with the cheerleader.
Hell yeah. We know her kind, but I was like, "Of course," if he wants the autograph for the girl. I've been stopped a lot for pictures, but I think that's something about L.A., people are so conditioned to see stuff, someone like me they want a picture and they're like, "That's awesome," but I don't think even in general, people ask for autographs as much. It's kind of like me at the [AOL] Geek Awards. I'm not gonna go up to Kevin Smith and say, "Can I get your autograph?" But I get a lot of picture requests and that's cool.

How do you find the balance between not having things go a million ways, but making sure you keep that momentum because it all does happen so quickly?
I know, it's difficult. A lot of the excitement to me has been I've been really lucky with a people contacting me through Facebook and Twitter and saying, "Hey, can you come in for this? We want to see you for this." I feel so lucky that I'm having these opportunities provided for me. I'm not really having to search things out, which is really cool.

So, now here you were just having lunch with Vienna and you got engaged after Jesse Csincsak's wedding, but that had nothing to do with Hollywood.
Yeah, that was Colorado. I knew Jesse before we moved out here. The most Hollywood thing, I was in E! today and walked by Joan Rivers. My most Hollywood experience was probably the Geek Awards, that was my first red carpet and that was so fun, oh my god. I also got in 'Newsweek' magazine, they had a thing about the hoax in 'Newsweek,' which was really cool. And Jimmy Kimmel did a parody of it, which definitely was the best. That was my favorite. He aired all the slides of me quitting and then his cue card person was quitting. Oh my god, it was great.

What was the timeline of stuff afterwards?
I didn't even get back to agents or managers until about a week and a half afterwards. There was too much stuff going on and I'm going through my inbox, even my Facebook, messages of, "Hey, we'd like you to come in for a meeting." At that point I was so overwhelmed. So then when stuff started to die down a tiny bit I started meeting with people. So it was crazy. A lot of people called me in I feel like cause they wanted to meet me to say that they met me. It was almost like they just wanted to talk about it and they'd say, "It was great meeting you." It was really funny.

Why do you think it enthralled people so much they just had to meet you?
I think what initially enthralled people is everybody wants to be able to quit their job like that and so it was something that people could relate to, live vicariously through, and I still agree with that. I think the more people knew about it and they knew it was me I think they liked the idea of this girl, I'm myself, I'm not planning on changing that, I'm a very approachable person.

Who are some of the role models in terms of the way they handle themselves publicly?
That's a difficult question to answer because you don't know their lives, but Scarlett Johansson seems to have a pretty good balance to me. Everybody obviously recognizes her, but it's not like you see her in all the tabloids. So I would say she's a pretty good role model.

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