May 09, 2026

Matt and Emily met each other through mutual friends Travis Brandt and Emily Talka, both in the Wedding Party. They were around each other at various events, birthday parties and nights at Standard Pour for about a year before they started dating. Matthew knew much sooner than Emily that he wanted to pursue a date and inched his way in by finding ways to sit closer to her to start conversations. Eventually this led to Matt texting Emily asking to get drinks.. Emily immediately texted their mutual friend Travis asking if Matt's ask was "platonic" ... it was obviously not. Although it may have taken two attempts from Matt, Emily did agree to meet for drinks a week later. They sat at Nodding Donkey on a Friday night for many more hours than anticipated, Matt walked Emily home and they went for dinner 2 nights later at Hudson House. After a few more dates, and Matt marking his territory with a tooth brush left at Emily's way sooner than she'd have liked, it was clear these two were no longer just platonic. Now here we all are! From Emily: I don't remember all the times Matt was around, but I do remember one small thought I had in Emily T's kitchen where I thought "Matt's cute" during a conversation I was having with him and Travis. Mind you, this was in January of 2023 and we didn't start dating until July of 2023, so it took a while. I remember getting Matt's phone number because I was going to Scottsdale, where he grew up, for Valerie's (in Wedding Party) bachelorette and needed some recommendations. When I texted Matthew, he was very short with his responses and all I remember thinking was "I do not care to talk with him again". I later found out that he was trying to "act cool" to get my attention... and he later found out that was never going to work with me! A bit later, we were at Katy Trail Ice House with a group of friends when he started complimenting my nail color, asking my questions about my nails, etc. and I remember thinking about why he cared so much about this subject (he was just attempting to make conversations with me about things I may have cared about). When he asked me to get drinks, I declined but left it as an open-ended "no, but maybe some other day" in an attempt to see how serious he was regarding this. Matthew is a very determined individual, if you know you know, so he was not going to let my decline set him back more than the week it did...a week later I caved in and now we're on our way to celebrating our wedding :) From Matthew: I remember the first time I saw Emily while out withe some friends and I could immediately tell there was something different about her. My first thought was "now that looks like a sophisticated woman." We crossed paths a few times after that, but it wasn't until months later that I truly set my sights on her. I asked Travis to invite me anytime Emily was around, and over the next couple of weeks I subtly sat just a bit closer to her and paid her just a bit more attention than everyone else. I finally worked up the courage to ask her to drinks, to which she said no - but it was an encouraging no so I tried again a week later. This time she agreed so we walked to a bar near her apartment in uptown. She told me right from the beginning she would have to leave by 10 - we left around midnight. During the walk back I desperately tried to think of how to ask her to dinner. My time ran out when we reached her apartment, so I abruptly told her I liked her and that I wanted to take her to dinner. She stared at me with a blank expression on her face. "Soo is that a yes or a no?" I asked. "Uhhh... okay" :) was the reply. We scheduled a second date a few days later and the rest is history.