Like many in this day and age, Matt and Kayla met on a dating app near the end of the stressful grad school years in Arizona. One could say they fumbled upon one other on Bumble. After talking for a while, they decided to meet for a competitive game of bowling. Kayla didn't make it all that competitive and still hears about it to this day. After a few months, they went their separate ways as graduation and life seemed to be taking them in different directions. Clearly that wasn't the last of it as a trip to visit Kayla's friends in Chicago in July 2018 spurred a reunion. From there, they decided on a year of long distance traveling to and from Colorado and Illinois and in 2019, Kayla moved to Chicago. The rest is history!

Arizona is a special place for Kayla and Matt as it is where they met one another. Matt proposed on the top of Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, AZ. Camelback is special as it was one of the first hiking dates they went on together when first dating. Matt claims the most nerve-wracking part of the engagement was hiding the ring box deep in a sock in the shared hiking backpack...especially when Kayla was repeatedly reaching inside the backpack for water during the hike. Matt hid his nerves well and pulled off a very thoughtful proposal.