June 30th 2025

We really owe meeting one another to the Bauer Theatre. It was at the Bauer where Victoria was working behind the bar and first saw Matthew perform improv back in 2015 when he was just starting out at StFX & she was finishing up her degree. For the next 4 years Victoria and Matthew stayed in touch building a friendship where timing was never quite right for the two of them to date. Then, in 2020 while working on an outdoor show together Matthew finally got the courage to ask Victoria out. Luckily for him she said yes and the rest became history as these two weaved a love story fit for film.

In the early days of their relationship things moved quickly, it after about a week of dating and spending nearly every day together Matthew admitted to Victoria that he knew already that he wanted to marry her one day. Luckily again this didn't scare Victoria off and they continued getting to know each other, jetting off on camping weekends in his van and working on the theatre production they were both involved in during the weeks. Things can't always be easy and carefree forever though and Matthew and Victoria faced their first challenge as a couple about a month into their relationship when Victoria's apartment flooded and needed significant repairs. From that point forward Victoria moved in with Matthew into the van he was living out of at the time as her apartment was getting repaired. It was only a few weeks into Van living that Victoria & Matthew both caught covid while working a show at the Bauer theatre and were then forced to isolate together in Matthew's Van. The next few weeks we're hard but luckily Matthew and Victoria were still able to join Victoria's family for Christmas that year as their isolation ended the day before Christmas Eve!

That christmas with Victoria's family was a great christmas, however things weren't going to stay calm for long. The day Matthew and Victoria were set to return to Antigonish to continue Van-Living until Victoria's apartment was repaired but that morning Matthew woke up and wasn't feeling good. He wen't to the hospital to get checked out and it turned out that he had an advanced form of Metastatic Testicular Cancer. This came as an absolute shock and upended both Matthew and Victoria's lives collectively as they put work and everything to the side to focus on getting Matthew through the next few months of treatment and surgery. Throughout the whole process Victoria was a rock for Matthew, helping ensure he had everything he needed to make the treatment as comfortable as possible even staying overnight with him several times during treatment. As he went through treatment Matthew and Victoria grew closer and learned how to navigate the harder parts of a relationship together learning about each others wishes for their lives and deepening in their love for one another.

Matthew survived treatment and Victoria and he grew closer over the time. It wasn't until after that point that Matthew and Victoria started really discussing the prospect of getting married, it felt like it had been so long since Matthew had said he wanted to marry tory all those months ago and they had been through so much together already. As they discussed and planned their next steps they came up with a plan on when they were going to ask one another to marry each other. One weekend Matthew booked them a trip to a cabin that he and some friends had been going to for years that he wanted to share with Victoria. That weekend they had a magical get away and Matthew proposed to Victoria, she said yes and shortly after that she proposed to Matthew and he said yes too!

Then came time for them to plan this beautiful wedding! We're so glad you can join us in celebrating our love. We have been planning this day for 3 years now and we're so excited you're able to join us as we take the next steps in our relationship, we're so excited you can take the time to celebrate our love with us!