During Fall semester of 2011 at WIU, we met when Matt joined the legendary Higgins Hall 18th floor. Meg had already known many friends from the previous year (Alex and Ashley Bozman, being two of them) but was curious who the new-comer with the backwards baseball cap and pierced ears (!!) was. After a brief meeting/encounter where Matt had found peanut butter in his pocket (his new nickname from there on out: Peanut-Butter-in-his-Pocket-Kid), Meg was highly terrified and anxious pretty much all the time (because she liked him so much, of course). Matt asked around the floor about Meg and soon became a permanent fixture in Meg's doorway, trying to snag her interest. After a few awkward "dates" (The Bridesmaids screening on the Higgins Hall lawn, anyone??) and an outing for pizza for Matt's birthday, they decided to cut to the chase and officially date! Ten years later, here we are!!

In February of 2019, we took a much needed trip down to Florida to see our good friend Andrew (a groomsman) and to go back to one of our favorite places: Universal Studios! The morning of the proposal, everyone was *very* hungover but decided to make the best of it. When Andrew (who had the ring) finally showed up (two hours late!), Matt was seriously sweating at that point. We were headed to Diagon Alley when Andrew took a work call and told us to go on ahead. Once inside, Matt brought Meg to the exact spot they'd taken pictures every time they'd visited. Under the ruse of taking a new selfie for their collection, Matt got down on one knee and managed to get out a "Will you marry me?" in between emotions. Time seemed to stop all around us when the hundreds of people there gave us a wide berth and all stopped talking as they waited for an answer. Meg was stunned and in between crying could only manage to nod "Yes". The crowd erupted in applause and we celebrated while "Harry's Wondrous World" played in background. (Huge shout out to Andrew for faking that phone call to get everything on video!!)