We're getting married!

Jonah and Maddie had attended the same Michigan summer camp for 7+ years but, with Jonah one year older, their roads never crossed until the dating apps of course. Jonah's sister was actually one of Maddie's camp counselors and Jonah's dad and Maddie's dad knew each other from high school back in the day. Maddie had even met Jonah's mom one time when they were both working at the camp clinic since they are both nurses. But Jonah and Maddie had never actually met... until they went on a date at a quaint Birmingham, MI restaurant in the late fall of 2019. Maddie was working long shifts at Detroit Receiving Hospital and soon enough, COVID was going to affect their ability to go out to restaurants, the movies, and explore markets and museums. They started cooking dinners together, played lots of scrabble, and binged tv shows as Maddie continued to work during the pandemic and Jonah continued to attend school. In 2019 and pre-pandemic, Maddie founded an organization at the University of Michigan, a student-led volunteer group that facilitated creative expression workshops for patients with mental health struggles at Mott Children's Hospital. Jonah started volunteering with Maddie shortly after they started dating, running these workshops together. Throughout the course of a year facilitating these workshops, patients created 50+ pieces of artwork which were put on display at the Huntington Woods Library Art Gallery. During this exhibit opening in January of 2020, Jonah met Maddie's family for the first time. He knew she was the one and that day, he sent a message to his friend (and best man) saying "I can't imagine myself with anyone else." And as they say, the rest is history :)

Jonah and Maddie had discussed marriage, jokingly at times, seriously at others, and had a rough idea of what their timelines looked like for getting married. Unbeknownst to Maddie, Jonah had already started the wheels in motion to get a custom ring made. Initially, Jonah's plan was to propose at the Detroit Zoo, but as the Big Day approached, the weather was NOT looking promising; winter proposals can be like that. In a swift and meaningful pivot, Jonah had come up with a new more touching plan, to propose at the Huntington Woods Library of all places. In the early months of their relationship, before Jonah had even earned the title "boyfriend," Maddie had put on an art exhibit at the library through her volunteer group ThirdSpace, a program that facilitated creative expression workshops and activities for kids at Mott's Children Hospital to showcase their work. Jonah had already made the white lie that they were going to the Zoo that day, so he had think on his feet. He mentioned that their friends wanted to join, but that there was an exhibit at the Public Library to see first, which didn't raise a single alarm for Maddie. As they were walking out the door, on a tight-ish deadline that was only apparent to Jonah, Maddie couldn't find her phone. Jonah started to flip the house upside down to find Maddie's phone so they could get out of the house. When they finally found it, they drove the 45 minutes to the library. Once they arrived, Jonah led Maddie down to the gallery where their families had made the space extra special, adding white rose petals, silver flowers, and garland along the exhibit grounds. The doors to the exhibit were closed and the lights were off, Maddie questioning where all of their friends were. Jonah smirked sharing that he didn't share the whole story. They walked in, the lights turned on and Jonah spilled his heart and began to reveal what was actually happening. He got down on one knee, proposed, they kissed and then both families came in to celebrate. * Check out the picture below; Maddie was indeed surprised!*