We're getting married! We can't wait to celebrate with you!

Matthew and Laura met on the first day of 7th grade at Immaculate Conception School in Bronx, New York. Quickly, the two became best friends and were known to be quite inseparable. As the days went on, Matt and Laura built a foundation on inside jokes, uncontrollable laughter, and secret nicknames for one another. Unfortunately, as the school year went on, Matthew found himself leaving ICS in the spring of 2009 with Laura staying behind. Although they stayed in contact for the next several years, (Laura attended Matthew's baseball games!) Matt and Laura's friendship eventually faded. Flash forward 10 years, to the spring of 2019, on the William Paterson University campus in Wayne, NJ, miles away from their initial meeting, these two middle school best friends found their way back to one another. With one week left in the semester and two weeks before Matthew was scheduled to graduate from WPU, he and Laura found themselves bumping into each other and catching up like no time had gone by. With the foundation of their childhood friendship bringing them back together, Matthew and Laura both agree that it felt like nothing had changed since the last time they saw one another. To this day, Matthew and Laura continue to argue that "they fell into a relationship" with one another. Neither one of them was looking for a relationship, but somehow knew being together just made perfect sense. After 10 years apart, these love birds are looking forward to spending the rest of their lives with one another!

On the two year anniversary of their first date, Matthew and Laura had plans of spending the day strolling through Central Park's Conservatory Garden and enjoying all its beauty. However, Mother Nature had other plans in mind. Although the entire day was sunny and gorgeous, the afternoon was taken over by a violent thunderstorm. Despite Laura's pleads to stay home and outside of the rain, Matthew proceeded to move forward with their plans. The two found themselves drenched from the rain as they made their way through Central Park. Before arriving for their dinner reservations at The Loeb Boathouse, Matthew insisted he and Laura take a walk around the park. Although Laura begged to say out of the rain, Matthew convinced her otherwise. Just then, the rain stopped and silence fell across the usually overly populated Central Park. In that moment, Matthew and Laura had Central Park all to themselves. As they cozied up to take a picture to remember the moment, infront of Central Park's famous Bethesda Terrace, Matthew got down on one knee and asked Laura the question she's been waiting to hear her entire life, "Will you marry me?" She said yes!