It was your typical Thursday at the University of St. Thomas, but little did I (Matt) know that this day would change my life forever. I was going about my typical Thursday routine of classes in the morning and afternoon, and getting together with all of my buddies for a night at Tiffany's Sports Lounge ("Tiffs") afterwards. Brooke was also going about her typical Thursday routine, however, as the studious person she was, she decided to stay in to study that night for an upcoming test. That night at Tiffs, I ran into some of my Spanish classmates who also happened to be roommates with Brooke. After a great conversation, one of the girls said something that I never expected; "Do you know my roommate, Brooke Nickelatti? She would kill me if I told you this, but she has a crush on you." Of course I knew who THE Brooke Nickelatti was, how could I miss the cute blonde as she walked past me on campus? The next Thursday, Brooke made a surprise appearance at Tiffs. I introduced myself and had a great conversation with her, plus I left that night with one extra phone number. I really wanted to get to know Brooke so I decided to ask if she would like to take a walk with me along the Mississippi River the next day. Little did we know that our quick walk along the river would turn into a 4-hour walk across St. Paul! We had instantly clicked and just wanted to keep learning more about each other. This was the night that really started our relationship together; October 6th, 2016.

On October 6th, 2020, the day of our 4-year dating anniversary, I (Matt) told Brooke that I wanted to take her out for a nice dinner in St. Paul to celebrate. Little did she know what I really had planned… I mentioned on the way to dinner that I would like to stop by the University of St. Thomas to walk around since we had time to kill before our reservation. We stopped by our first date spot for a quick walk along the Mississippi River. The last spot on the walk is a beautiful cliff overhang right off campus. Without Brooke knowing what was going on, I had my family and her family hidden in bushes and a photographer pretending to have a picnic on the overhang. After a challenging climb down the rocks to get to the overhang, I was finally at my proposal spot. I pulled an anniversary card out of my pocket and handed it to Brooke. As Brooke started reading, I non-chalantly positioned myself behind her without her realizing. I wrote a love story on the card (nothing out of the ordinary for an anniversary card) but with a twist on the bottom. On the bottom of the card, I told Brooke to “turn the card around for a surprise.” On the back of the card, it said “now you turn around for a surprise.” Brooke turned around and I was on one knee… and the rest is what we would say is history. The rest of the night was spent celebrating with a small group of friends and family. I could not have asked for the day of the engagement to go any better, and I got a “yes” which is all that matters!