We both were living in NWA at the time, neither one of us were the type to "go to a bar to meet someone" so we gave online dating a shot. I can remember the first time I saw his dating profile, I thought to myself, "There is no way this guy is real" but as the saying goes, "you miss 100% of the shots you never take" so I swiped right. BOOM. Instant match!- and he SUPER LIKED me, which caught my attention. We conversed back and forth for a few hours, I got his snapchat, we snapped back and forth for a while and in true Madison Fashion-I ghosted him. He lived his life, and I lived mine until one day when I was on vacation with my best friend Casey and a few other friends in South Carolina. We had just gotten back from the beach and my phone lit up, it had been MONTHS since we talked, but he sent me a snap chat. It was a photo of him, at a civil war reenactment. He was dressed in his civil war garb from head to toe. I immediately showed Casey, because that's what girls do, and then we talked about how unbelievably HANDSOME this man was. Matt and I didn't stop talking from that moment on. After vacation, we made the looooong trip home. At that time, I was a 911 Dispatcher who hated my life, and I had a t-shirt making business on the side. It was my day off and I was had some t-shirt deliveries to do. Matt worked at the State Park close by and asked me to meet him at Slims Chicken for lunch to which I responded that I couldn't. PLOT TWIST I went, and I sat in the parking lot of that Slims Chicken without him knowing I was there just to make sure he was a real person, I mean after all, a girl can never be too safe, right? When he got up to throw his trash away, I ZOOMED out of the parking lot. He FINALLY asked me on a date and we agreed on Chilis. Little did I know I would spend the next 3 days at his house cheering on the Washington Nationals during the World Series. Technically we had 3 "first dates" before our actual "first Date". We lived an hour or so apart so during my drive home after the first night I called Casey. We were talking and she said "Madi, just by the way you talk about this man, I know he is different." I said "Yeah, I think he is." From then on, we were inseparable. November 4. 2019 I called into work to go hiking with him. We went to the Buffalo River Area and hiked Lost Valley. It was WARM and I was SO SWEATY when we made it down to the falls. We took our pictures and when we were about to head back to the top he stopped me and told me he wanted to ask me a question. Thats when he asked me to be his girlfriend. Little did he know in a few short weeks I would throw him to the wolves and introduce him to every single family member I have all at once- I knew if he could survive that, then he could survive anything! 4 LOOOOONG years later came the proposal! Around Christmas, Matt enlisted the help of his mom to find the perfect ring. They were super clever and told me they were "deep freezer" shopping. I never in a million years would have guessed that they would find the most beautiful ring that day. Thats when Matt started planning. After showing my WHOLE family the ring (which no one gave me any hints WHAT SO EVER) he inlisted the help of our friends Haley and Stevon to capture the proposal! Haley is an aspiring photographer who is expecting a little girl shortly, so we planned to swap sessions. After some planning between me and Haley, the plan was that I would take gender reveal photos for them and Haley would do couples pictures for us! At one point our song came on while we were there doing pictures and I go SO suspicious, BUT HE DIDNT DO IT!! Haley had us Infront of a Pompas grass wall and told me the "lighting was so good" and told me not to move. All the while Matt was kneeling behind me! She Snapped some photos and then said "okay, now turn around" and there he was. I kept saying "are you serious" over and over again until he finally asked me "SOOO is that a, yes?" and well, the rest is history!