Our stars aligned on January 16, 2016, when a party at my apartment brought Matt to my door. I was instantly intrigued by his demeanor and captivated by his smile. I went on to tell our friend, Tyler, that I thought Matt was ‘cute’. I knew I had to see him again. A week later we would have our first kiss and a month later we would say ‘I love you.’ The rest is history. I have said this before and I will say it again...when you know, you know and I truly always have. -Lauren

Lauren was disappointed when she wasn’t able to visit me in Washington D.C. for the cherry blossom bloom during my one-year stint there. I promised we’d take a road trip down the following year to make up for it. Luckily for me, that timing lined up pretty well with when I had my life together enough to ask her to marry me. I planned to ask on a walk around the national mall, hopefully somewhere close to all the cherry trees. What didn’t occur to me (amazingly and pathetically) is that tens of thousands of tourists would also be visiting the same square mile, which isn’t the best proposal environment. After a while of walking around like a buffoon with a somewhat bulky ring box in my pocket and probably behaving pretty strangely, Lauren had almost certainly figured me out (though she still hasn’t fully admitted this). She mercifully came to my rescue (not the first time nor the last) by suggesting we end the walk, go to dinner, and go back to see the cherry blossoms the next morning at sunrise. So, the following morning at 6 am on April 13th, despite fog and a barely visible sunrise, I asked the love of my life to marry me. And she said yes. -Matt