Matt moved from the Philadelphia area to Washington, DC in 2011 to begin working at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). When Augie arrived at HRC from the Chicago area in 2014, he met Matt on his first day. Matt was incredibly smitten with Augie’s chic argyle quarter-zip and overgrown salt and pepper hair, while Augie couldn’t get over Matt’s cool sense of style and Miranda Priestly-esque attitude. After months of romantic glances and countless happy hours, Augie finally finished his internship, and a proper relationship between the two could officially begin. With a little help from a friend (hi, Catherine!), they had their first date on Thursday, July 31, 2014. They spent that entire weekend together and haven’t looked back since.

After living together in DC for several years, Augie and Matt moved to Chicago in 2019. Soon after, of course, 2020 struck. Needing a win during this horrible year and craving something to celebrate, Augie made the decision to propose to Matt in the new home they had created on the anniversary of their first date: July 31, 2020. With his family virtually present thanks to Zoom, and with “Dancing Queen” playing in the background, Matt worked through his sobs to answer, “Yes.” While Augie then got increasingly jealous of Matt’s ability to now flaunt an engagement ring, Matt returned the favor by surprising Augie with a proposal of his own a couple months later on September 26 during a weekend getaway in Michigan. Augie came home from picking up pizza, and Matt was there surrounded by wildflowers, meaningful books from Augie’s life, and custom bookmarks documenting historic days over the six years of the Matt-and-Augie era. Augie of course said yes, and they soon began wedding planning.