Rachel Nelson, one of Matt’s close friends and one of Maggie’s clients set us up on her wedding week! Read below to see both Matt and Maggie‘s perspectives: Matt: In the months leading up to her wedding, Rachel mentioned that the wedding planner she hired was amazing and that she thought I would like her. She kept pushing for us to talk during her reception when Maggie was trying to work. Finally, during the after party at Whiskey Thief, we were able to spend a lot of time together and things worked out from that point on! Maggie: At Rachel and I’s last consultation on her (first) wedding week, we swung by the Whiskey Thief to confirm timeline and final details. I don’t remember how it got brought up, but Rachel asked me if I was interested in dating and what I was looking for (this is key, because I have had couples just say “you’re single, he’s single, you should talk!”). Also, I tried to kindly remind her that, as flattered as I was to meet this perfect-match-of-a-man, I was going to be focused on my work for her whole wedding weekend. And, this was true, I don’t remember actually first meeting Matt or really talking to Matt during her wedding. Thankfully, Rachel had planned an after party at the Whiskey Thief, where I was not working. Since I already was hired for a second celebration for Rachel, I knew swinging by to congratulate and say hi would be a kind and professional thing to do, and I would keep it short and sweet after working 10 hours straight. Rachel grabbed my arm, dragging me over to “actually, really talk to Matt!” And we hit it off immediately, and have been together ever since!

Proposing in the middle of Maggie’s busiest wedding season in a year and half was arguably the best way to surprise her! Here’s our points of view from the day! Matt: Originally, I had planned to propose much later in the year, but Ashton (Maggie's best friend) told me that I needed to propose before our trip to San Francisco if I wanted to surprise Maggie at all. So in the later summer/early fall months I started putting together a plan. I concocted a fake dinner at my parent's house that my grandmother was coming to as an excuse to go up Signal Mountain. Then got my brother to "spontaneously" call me and say he and my sister-in-law were stopping by Falling Water to check out the view. Maggie suspected nothing and everything went off without a hitch! (Although I think she was more excited that Ashton was there than getting the ring) Maggie: I had no idea it was happening that soon! I could have sworn he was proposing right before our trip to San Francisco. I fully believed we were just going to have a nice dinner with his family. Matt and I even talked about what to wear and I was completely fooled! His brother called about swinging by an overlook on the way to “dinner with Nina” to see the leaves changing. This was early October day in the south. The leaves do not change that early! I love hiking and thankfully it did not click that we would still just be looking at the greenest of leaves. Once we got down to the overlook, Matt pointed out the rock face (to get me to turn around) and next thing I knew, he was getting on his knee! I think I asked a few times if this was for real or a joke. His brother and sister-in-law were taking video and photos, and then my best friend surprised me by popping out of the trees to celebrate with us! The best part was that wasn’t the only surprise. Matt had, also, coordinated several surprise engagement parties with close friends that weekend, which was sweet of him to pull together and have friends travel to celebrate with us!