Matt and I met our sophomore year at Xavier High School. We were both going to a bonfire at a mutual friends house. Matt was playing basketball that day with his friends before my girlfriends and I showed up. When they got back he went inside to change out of his sweaty clothes. When he came out to the bonfire, the only open seat left was the one next to me. Matt was being his typical shy self, so to break the ice and start a conversation I started talking to him about his new basketball coach. The night went on with continued small talk between the two of us, I swear I only got 10 words out of him. After the party was over, I was given Matt’s number by a friend. I thought he was somewhat cool so I sent him a quick text the next day, not knowing that he never checked his phone. I would have to wait 5 DAYS (he still debates how long) for him to text me back. After he texted me back, the rest has been history!

With Hayley living and working in Chicago and myself in Detroit or Iowa City it made spending time together difficult. But it did make it easier to sneak around her back to plan the engagement. I had a little help from her friends to design her beautiful ring and plan the actual proposal. So we hadn’t seen each other in about a month so I had planned with her to go out for dinner when we were both back in town at a nice restaurant. That immediately alarmed her because I’m not a planner and I told her to wear something nice (which as we all know Hayley never dresses up). So we scheduled dinner at Iowa River Power on June 28th. I had worked it out with the restaurant to tell us that “they were cleaning our table” and it would be 10 minutes before we could sit down to eat. Well Hayley took that and sat down faster than I could turn around. My plan was falling apart but I begged her enough to go for a walk on the dam bridge just outside. My nerves were at an all time high as we walked on the bridge and what I can only describe as ‘word vomit’ happened. We finally got to the spot as we watched a man fish, I fiddled in my pocket for the ring and got down on a knee and asked the most amazing girl to marry me. Thankfully she said yes!