Celebrate with us!

Maddie fell into the Oyster River crowd as soon as she landed at UNH. Thanks to her dorm placement, Max's good friend from high school, Connor, lived on the same floor freshmen year. And Max's cousin, Alec, always seemed to be nearby (and could often be found trying to court some of Maddie's friends). It wasn't long until M&M crossed paths at one party or another. But it wasn't until sophomore year in a smelly basement apartment that Max really caught Maddie's eye, and vice versa. Maddie was charmed by the guy with the mullet and smiling eyes. Max smiled at the cute girl laughing in the corner but was otherwise entangled at the time. Years passed without much contact, until the fateful night in 2011 when M&M ran into each other at a bar in downtown Durham that neither of them frequented. "What are you doing here?" Max asked. "What are YOU doing here?" Maddie shot back. "Wanna leave?" "Yep." And that was the start of a sometimes messy, often times magical, college-cliché, more-than-friendship-but-much-less-than-commitment non-relationship, filled with many a Loon ski trip, countless breakfasts at the Big Bean, Lamprey River floating, and dancing in the kitchen (or anywhere else there was music). When Maddie graduated and subsequently moved to Montana, the two separated with both reluctance and relief, at one point joking, "Wouldn't it be funny if we finally got our shit together one day and got married?" [Narrator: Funny, indeed.]

Maddie spent the next three years moving from Montana to Oregon to California, finding adventure, seeking purpose, and adopting sweet hound dog Eleanor along the way. At the same time, Max stayed put in New Hampshire and, instead of thinking about purpose or career, dedicated most of his time to a band called Harsh Armadillo. Then, in 2016, Maddie decided to attend grad school at Boston University’s School of Public Health. Max, still playing music but at a loss for what to do with his life, quickly sought solace and wisdom from the newly returned and world-wise Maddie, freshly back from the west coast. Maddie, in desperate need of fun and an escape from the demands of grad school, made countless trips north to Max’s shows and, whenever possible, to the mountains. From one of their very first weekends back in touch, the reunited pair found they still had a blast, still had life to figure out, and still loved dancing together (themes that persist to this day). A couple years later, with zero tears and hardly any stress at all, Maddie graduated with her Master’s. From there, M&M moved in together, moved around together, found and switched jobs, hiked, skied, danced, followed Harsh around New England, and played many a game of ‘monkey-in-the-middle’ with Ellie dog (Ellie typically being the monkey). Then 2020 happened. Right before the pandemic, the pair moved into their own home in Durham, 5 minutes from Maddie's work, closer to Max's family and the band's practice space, and with room for Ellie to roam. But within a few short months, Maddie's commute to work dropped further, from 5 minutes all the way down to zero, and the live music industry came to a screeching halt. Sharing COVID spring and summer isolated in their new home, the pair whiled away the hours in the sun on the back porch dreaming of adventures to come. With Harsh off the table, Max was forced to consider his own purpose. With Maddie's encouragement, he quit his engineering job and found a new passion and career path in aviation. When the world finally (finallyyyy) opened back up, the two were ready for a new quest. So, in October 2022, they packed up Eleanor and their belongings into a truck named Esmerelda and hit the road. Six weeks later, after thousands of miles, many national parks, numerous visits with beloved friends and family, one kidney stone, and a beautiful mountain top sunset proposal in Santa Barbara, the newly engaged couple landed in Boulder, Colorado and started planning an epic dance party/wedding.

To be continued...