We’re Getting Married!!

We met in a public speaking class at community college. Matt, jokingly, asked me to bring him coffee to the next class, but what he really meant to say was, “are you single?” I shook my head and walked away. Almost a decade later, we found we were still Facebook friends when Matt left a comment on a picture I took of Tibetan prayer flags drapped across a section of a temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. I was filming short documentaries for a nonprofit for three months Summer of 2017. When I saw his comment, I obviously stalked him. And I found a video he posted of himself participating in a push-up challenge. I laughed when his red-nosed pitbull Marley crawled underneath him and “kissed” him as he lowered his body to the ground. That set off a series of private messages between us. I was intrigued by this guy and his adorable dog. Let’s be honest—the dog reeled me in. Initially.

I thought our friend, and now wedding officiant, Todd was hiring me for a job. He asked me to film the fall foliage at Beaver Lake State Park on Oct. 7, 2020. And he also “hired” Matt. We’ve all worked together before, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary. A storm was rolling in, so they were hurrying to a perfect spot, but I, of course, decided to film on the way, dragging my feet like the pain-in-the-ass I am. The rain only got heavier as we took cover underneath our joint umbrellas until the rain slowed and we reached a familiar spot. Camera in hand, I was somehow the last to climb the stairs to the platform. Must have been filming a tree stump or something. Looking back, I feel ridiculous. Matt asked me to put the camera down and come look at a carving in the wooden railing of the overlook. Intrigued, I met him at the railing and it began to pour. My wet hair stuck to my face as Matt got down on one knee and pulled out a ring. His hand was steady as he held it in front of me and proposed I spend the rest of forever with him. I remember saying something like, “of course.”