Strap in folks, if you know me, you know I’ve never told a short story. Our love story started over a decade ago, we just didn’t know it at the time. I first met Matt as my friend Sami’s younger brother. Sami and I became close friends while sharing classes and doing theater together in college. When she directed (and I stage managed) a sold out production of Rent, Sami enlisted her little brother and fellow UAlbany student to record the show. That’s how Matt and I met for the first time. We would cross paths a few more times and hang out as friends of friends. When I needed a job, the Cheesecake Factory where Matt worked was hiring. That’s how Matt and I became coworkers. We spent so many endless shifts together and bonded over our mutual misery at work. I thought Matt was funny and made good company. We became work buddies. We kept running into each other at parties and shared the same friends, so we spent more time together. That’s how Matt and I became friends. Matt went home to Long Island after graduating in 2015. I stayed upstate. Cut to 2016. After almost 4 years of living alone, I was ready for a roommate (and lower rent). Unfortunately for me, all my friends had leases and I am not the kind of gal who finds a roommate online…so I gave up and moved into a slightly less expensive studio. A few months later, Matt decided to visit one weekend when I happened to be downstate. Shoutout to my dear friend Sam for mentioning my struggles finding a roommate. Matt was considering a move back to Albany. Sam’s fateful suggestion started a chain of events that led to you reading this wedding website today. Luck would have it, a 2 bedroom unit in my new apartment building became available in March. I moved downstairs, and by St. Patrick’s Day 2017, Matt was mostly moved in too. That’s how Matt and I became roommates. I’m pausing here to mention a critical piece of information: despite being a guy, Matt was a “safe” roommate who I chose to live with because I was absolutely certain we wouldn’t end up dating. There was no risk of things getting complicated because we knew each other and were already good friends, so we were sure no romantic interest was there. We got along great, but I didn’t like Matt “like that.” I figured we’d chat and be friendly but spend most of our time apart in our separate rooms. Yeah, well. For the next 4 months, Matt and I accidentally spent all our free time together. We shared hours and hours on our couch just talking and laughing. At some point, panic struck - what does it mean that I’m voluntarily forfeiting my precious alone time to hang out with my roommate? Does that mean I like him? What do you do when you have a crush on your roommate?? You frantically text your lifelong best friend, the one that knows you better than you know yourself - big thanks to Jenna for always answering the call. Jenna talked me out of my spiral and, over time, convinced me that I wasn’t imagining it: my roommate liked me too and I wouldn’t end up with a broken lease and a more broken friendship. So when Matt mustered up the courage to stand in my bedroom doorway and ask me out on a date - knowing it could begin anything or ruin everything - I had the courage to say “yes.” We went out and had an amazing time and laughed when Matt walked me to my door inside the apartment we shared. And that’s how Matt and I fell in love.

Kellie and I have known each other since college. This means that I’ve known my best friend, the love of my life, for over a decade now! It all started the moment we met my sophomore year. The two of us first met through UAlbany Musical Theater Association. I joined the crew late to help film the performance of a little production my sister, Sami, was directing at the time called “Rent.” At the time, my soon-to-be-wife was absolutely crushing it as Sami’s Stage Manager. But while my sister may have introduced me to the person I’d later decide to spend the rest of my life with, we really didn’t start hitting it off until she started coming by my dorm room…. You see, at the time Kellie was dating my roommate. She would come over, and we would all hang out in the common room before eventually navigating ourselves elsewhere around the SUNY Albany campus. Even though this time was short-lived, a unanimous decision was made that Kellie was a better person than my roommate. Kellie was kind, thoughtful, and a genuine good person. She became a permanent fixture of our friend group from that point on! The next year, Kellie and I would both find ourselves working as hostesses at the Colonie Center Mall Cheesecake Factory. We’d complain about standing through 6-8 hour shifts, and take soup and bread from the kitchen when we left. We still gossip about some of the people we used to work to this day. After graduating in 2015, I moved back down to Long Island, but would come back up to Albany to visit a few times. We’d watch funny Internet videos just like the good old days, and talk about what we’d been up to. At one point I remember bringing up my interest in moving back upstate. I’d later get a text from our friend Sam — who deserves all the credit — that Kellie had talked to her around the same time about upgrading from a 1 bedroom to a 2 bedroom apartment. The catch: She didn’t want to live with a random person from Craigslist, and she didn’t know of anyone else looking for a place to rent. I sent Kellie a message then and there asking if she’d want to live with me, and being the incredible person she is, she said yes! I quit my Long Island job, and moved my stuff back Upstate, into a 2 bed, 1 bath, with her. It was the best call that I could have ever made. Very quickly, I started noticing that I really, really, enjoyed spending time with Kellie. Most of our nights were spent just the two of us, and even if not for the entire night, we would usually devote 1 or 2 hours to just talking on the couch. I always knew Kellie as this genuinely incredible and passionate person, but living with Kellie I got to see an entirely new side of her. Oops! It suddenly became very apparent that I’d accidentally fallen in love with my roommate. It took some time deciding if it was worth gambling the status of our lease over, but I figured I’d try asking her if she liked me too. Thankfully she said yes, and I asked her out right then and there. We went to hibachi for dinner as our first date.