Our story began through mutual friends on Instagram, where Matt sent a message—and the rest is history! We officially started dating in May 2022 and soon transitioned into a long-distance relationship. In August 2022, Matt began PA school in Birmingham, AL, while Brianna started a 2-year Supply Chain rotation program. She stayed in Winston-Salem until January 2023, then moved to Murfreesboro, TN for work. By January 2024, Brianna was working remotely and joined Matt in Birmingham. In March 2024, Matt proposed, and we spent our final year in Birmingham with our furry crew—our dog Sage and two cats, Wrigley and Pepper. After Matt’s graduation in December 2024, we moved to Winston-Salem in January 2025 to start our next chapter. Matt began his new role in the Surgical Trauma Burn unit at Wake Forest, while Brianna continues working remotely in Strategic Sourcing. We also added a new (giant and adorable) member to the family—our Bernese Mountain Dog puppy, Boone. Life is full, chaotic, and sweeter than ever, and we can’t wait for all that’s ahead!
Matt started planning the proposal about two months before, and sneakily went ring shopping a month before covering his tracks by taking our dog Sage on a “walk” near a jewelry store. Insight to Matt is he is very impatient when it comes to exciting plans or giving gifts, so the fact that he was able to keep this from me for two months is very impressive (ex. he often tries to give me Christmas presents in November lol). When the day finally came, it was a random Tuesday in March, and we were headed to a local hiking trail with Sage— yes another walk for her lol, her high-energy ways proved to be very helpful for this! We reached a quiet overlook, and as I was distracted, with Sage getting scarily close to the edge, Matt was behind me, preparing to pop the question. When he said my name, I turned around surprised, and my first words were, “What?! Are you serious?” Of course, I said yes, and we had an exciting walk back down the trail, where he filled me in on all the planning backstory he had been dying to share! It was exactly what I had wanted—a private moment, just the two of us, on a quiet day. Once we got home, we Facetimed our families, who knew it was happening and were overjoyed for us. To top it off, our families surprised me that weekend by coming to Birmingham to celebrate together- which Matt helped plan the weekend full of fun activities with our family. It was the perfect proposal, a special moment shared just between us (and of course our girl Sage), followed by a weekend surrounded by the people we love most.