Our story started back at Grand Valley State University…well kind of. Senior year, we had a couple of classes together but didn’t interact much. Mostly because Lawrence came late and sat in the very back row while Maddie was front and center (suck up). He noticed her because she was beautiful, well dressed, and seemed like she maybe tried just a little too hard in class. She noticed him because he seemed charismatic, good with the ladies and highly underdressed for the business school. After a chance encounter at a Grand Rapids house party on NYE of 2016, we exchanged information, but there was one problem: Maddie was still living out in Nashville with no plans to come back anytime soon. Lawrence would randomly message on Snapchat, or slide into the IG DMs, but was lucky if he got even a one word response or an “lol.” Fortunately, his persistence paid off when Maddie finally moved back to the mitten state. He quickly told her to put him in line with the other people that wanted to hangout since she got back. We went to Ale Marys in Royal Oak in July 2019. Maddie showed up late (and on a fake phone call) Larry showed up early (for the first and only time in history) and in cargo shorts. We went to Toy Story 4 together, and the rest is history.

We went out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant to start the evening - Maddie grilled me a little bit for going somewhere more expensive than necessary for it not being a special occasion ...little did she know. After dinner, we had tickets to Meadow Brook Hall's Christmas lights show. It was a beautiful evening and an incredible lights display. I knew that she had no idea a proposal was coming. In the months leading up, I purposefully stopped asking her questions about ring preferences. On top of that, I didn't even suggest she get a manicure! She spent the day Black Friday shopping with her mom (and grilling her on when I was proposing), allowing me to ensure everything was ready to go. At the end of the display walk-through, there was an arch set up with lights, perfect for photos. I asked the couple in front of me to take our picture, and then quietly told them about the proposal. They started filming, I got down on one knee, and the rest is history. Maddie was so surprised that she forgot to even take the ring from me. She said "yes", so I guess I must have done something right!