Always.

Our story is very special. We met on September 15, 2009. Mattie brought her guitar to school for a class. While she was playing and waiting for the school bus to arrive, she felt someone approach. It was Alec. Suddenly, she found herself handing the guitar over to him and we sang and played a song together. Mattie’s teenage heart was straight up bursting. Then, Alec suddenly had to go because his school bus arrived. Months later, he worked up the courage to ask Mattie out. On our first date in January, 2010, we talked for 4 hours and almost shut the restaurant down. We were each other’s confidant, best friend, and rock through some pretty bad times. When Mattie was in college, we were at an impasse and our lives were going in different directions, so we broke up. We were broken up for 2 years and each had some serious growth during that time. Alec reached out to Mattie (super sincerely and romantically) in 2017, pursued her, and we got back together in June! We have been together since then.

Our engagement was so special. Alec planned for us to road trip to South Lake Tahoe, because it’s one of our favorite places. Alec woke me up the morning after we arrived and said he wanted to take me to lunch, so to dress nice. But before lunch, he wanted to “just stop by” Emerald Bay and go up to Eagle Falls. Once we got there, I knew something was different! We walked up to the falls, and while I was looking out at the scenery on the bridge, I felt like something was up. When I turned around, Alec was on one knee and proposing. We were both crying happy tears, and I said “a thousand times, yes.” The people around us were cheering, and it was so beautiful. It was like an out of body experience. He had planned for someone to take photos of us around Emerald Bay right away, and it was just like a totally epic day with just the two of us. Our favorite adventure together was back in 2019, when we first explored South Lake Tahoe together. We got up super early one morning and went down to Emerald Bay, and kayaked to Fannette Island. There was no one else on the lake yet, and it was just the two of us together, taking everything in. It was super serene, absolutely magical, and we were both like “umm this is the coolest thing we have ever done together.” We will never forget that day.

We have always talked about having a small wedding. Mattie has always said that she would be cool with just going to the court house to get married, because ultimately, the marriage is about the two of us committing to one another for life. But we are super pumped to be going somewhere as beautiful as Yosemite and sharing our love with only those who are closest to us. We both value genuine, intimate relationships, and this way of getting married embodies those values. We chose Yosemite because we wanted to get married somewhere we always dreamed of going together. We love going to new places, and trying new things, so this is about as perfect as it gets. We both like the mountains more than the beach or the city, and we wanted to go somewhere that feels peaceful.