Every year, Leah's sorority at Grove City College holds a blind date night. A few weeks before the event, the original guy was no longer available, but that one of his friends still wanted to go. Leah was busy coordinating dates for nine of her other sorority sisters and didn't have too much time to stress over the change of plans. On the day of the event, Matt shook Leah's hand and they spent about seven hours together ice skating at PPG and exploring Pittsburgh. Before dropping her off, Matt figured out a way to get her number and texted her the following Monday about her unique taste in music which turned into Matt asking Leah to get coffee. He wasn't sure where it was going to go, but he wanted to get to know her better in a real date setting. They went to Collage Coffee in Grove City on Study Day and spent three hours talking without even realizing it.

Originally, Matt and Leah decided they would see how the first few weeks of being in the same country would go before making anything official (Leah had spent the last two weeks in Scotland and France, but they made it work through the time difference). The first Sunday back, Leah met Matt's friends and Matt met Leah's friends and had a great time. On Monday, they got lunch, and Matt said he didn't want to wait for the first week to go by and could he take Leah out to dinner that Wednesday to make things official. Leah, not passing up an opportunity to not eat dining hall food, quickly agreed. Matt called Leah's Dad at the restaurant to ask if it was okay for them to date, and then asked Leah to be his girlfriend.

Matt knew Leah was the one after being together for about a year. In August, 2020, he went to get a ring with his sister Grace and kept it a secret from everyone except his family. It took a while for the ring to come in because the pandemic caused a diamond shortage and Leah is very picky. As soon as he had a ring, he knew he wanted to propose and started making plans. It was a crazy week of planning- making sure Leah was oblivious, that everything was set up to go, and that he would make the drive to Pittsburgh in time. With the help of Leah's whole family and Matt's siblings, they set up a pavilion at North Park with lights, pictures, candles, and even fireworks. Leah's mom had called her earlier that day and said she wanted to out to eat and was going to find somewhere that was open for them to go. She texted that they were going to eat at the boathouse at North Park, and Leah was very close to staying home and watching a movie by herself after her long week of exams. She went, and enjoyed a nice dinner on the lake. Leah's cousin, Bo, loves to fish, so after dinner Leah's mom wanted to drive around to show him the fishing spots. As they passed one pavilion, Leah saw the lights and said "Aw cute, it looks like someone's getting engaged!" while her mom decided she had to go to the bathroom and pulled into the parking lot. She asked Leah to come with her because it was getting dark, but instead basically had to push Leah towards the pavilion because once she saw Matt she froze. She walked through the candles towards the lighted pavilion and Matt asked her to be his wife. She said yes.