"There are chance meetings with strangers that interest us from the first moment, before a word is spoken." -Fyodor Dostoevsky Matthew and Madison met unexpectedly at a wedding ceremony of two mutual friends in August 2018. Matthew often says he knew there was something special as soon as he saw Madison stepping out of the shuttle van - heels, gracefully, sinking in the mud as she walked to the chapel. After the ceremony, Madison had even texted her mom that she had met the man she was going to marry (before they had even spoken a word to each other). Flash forward to the wedding reception, Matthew and Madison ~somehow, wink wink~ ended up sitting right next to each other. They talked, laughed, Madison taught Matthew how to "properly" take a picture, and later helped clean the reception space. Each time Madison caught a glimpse of Matthew, he was already looking at her. After the reception, everyone went back to another mutual friend's house and it was pouring the rain. When we say "pouring" - buckets. Madison and her friends were in the living room when one of Matthew's friends came in drenched after taking more pictures from the wedding. He came in alone and just when Madison thought she wouldn't see her self-proclaimed "future husband" again, Matthew walks through the door, also drenched from head to toe. She offers him two towels "because he's tall" - for icebreaking purposes - and everyone has a fun time just talking for what felt like hours. Eventually, the boys had to get going and everyone said their goodbyes. The second that apartment door closed, Madison turned to her friend, Ashley, and said, "Hook me up." Ashley's little fingers went crazy, working her magic and within five minutes the rest of Matthew and Madison's lives fell into place. There were a hundred things that could have happened in that day that would have led to us not meeting. My friend, Kendra, and I almost didn't go to that wedding. When I say almost, I mean "decides last possible second to go, driving 80+ mph with flashers on the interstate" to make it to the ceremony on time. Kendra and I almost didn't sit at that table. Matthew could have left right after the wedding pictures. He could have texted the wrong number (which I wholeheartedly thought he did because the man didn't text until approximately 10 PM that night). Matthew is my proof that "love at first sight" really can happen because it did to me. Because of one chance meeting, we have the rest of our lives to look forward to together.