Our story began the night of Fratsgving, or as Mia likes to call it 'the only well-lit Fraternity'. For this particular event, my Fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, hosts Alpha Phi (Mia's Sorority) and plans a sit-down Thanksgiving dinner for both houses prior to the Syracuse winter break. It was always a nice way to sit down with good friends, old and new, to catch up before everyone parted ways for the holidays. Now little did Mia know, but earlier that day I had my end-of-the-semester review for my architecture studio and was dressed to impress, or at least I thought so. To this day she still makes fun of me for wearing a suit to the party! But anyways the event began like any other with guys and girls chatting separately. I was kind of confused by this and leaned over to my groomsman Ben and said 'why is no one sitting with the girls? His response... "you won't"... Now since I happened to know a few of the girls in the group seated behind me I replied with, "watch me". To his slight amazement, I went over and started chatting with 'The Crew' as they like to call themselves. Girls who I now count as some of my best friends. This was the moment I will always remember. I looked across the table to find staring back at me the most strikingly beautiful girl I had ever met. Everything about her seemed to invite me in from her platinum blonde hair to her big deep brown eyes, to the soft light pink sweater she wore that night. That moment will live on forever in my mind as I gaze upon my now fiance and soon-to-be wife. As the night went on we stayed up until sunrise just talking about our lives and dreams for the future. Those are the moments I love her for. Her openness and honesty with me are unlike anything I have encountered in my life. It is one of the many reasons that I'm so excited to call this woman my wife. As our wedding song says, 'I'll thank my lucky stars for that night'. Always.

We met on November 18th, 2014 at Syracuse University. My friends and I decided to go to Fratsgiving on a whim and said we would only stay about an hour or so, eat and then leave. Obviously, that didn't end up happening. After we had a few drinks and it was time to sit down, we were pretty much separated, guys and girls. Until Matt came over and sat down at our table. I had seen him a few times in passing and had said before that I thought he was cute, but I'd never spoken to him. When he came over he continued that trend and pretty much spoke directly to everyone at our table except for me until about an hour or so in. Years later I'd come to learn that he was so nervous he didn't know what to say to me! Once we did start talking and I finally got to ask him why on earth he was wearing a suit when everyone else was in tee-shirts, we hit it off. After the party ended we talked for hours and hours until the sun came up! I'm not going to pretend that after that night I knew he was the man I'd spend the rest of my life with. However, I did learn that he was everything that I was looking for. Pretty much my opposite and everything I never knew that I needed.