It was a beautiful spring day in 2017. Stef was casually swiping on Tinder when she came across a photo of a man eyeing several parrots crowding his arms with some concern. She was intrigued. Luckily, he wasn't committing any Tinder faux pas (photos with fish, car/bathroom selfies, etc.) so she swiped right and voila! It was a match. Even though they both had their distance preference set to 10 miles apart or less and they happened to live 20ish miles apart, Tinder knew that these two talkative, borderline obnoxious, ridiculously good looking people needed to meet. Two days later, Matt and Stef met for their first date at a dive bar in South Jersey. They spent the date getting to know one another and trying to make sense of a sailing competition on the bar's TV (it made zero sense). Stef thought Matt seemed funny and kind and Matt thought Stef seemed out of his league. She maintains that actually he is out of her league. They will debate this point for the rest of their lives.

During the peak of the pandemmy, Stef and Matt accidentally booked a camping trip in western VA over a holiday weekend. What should have been a socially distant vacation became... not so socially distant. Luckily, most of it was spent outside hiking different trails, cooking meals over a campfire, enjoying wine with a view at a local vineyard, and making friends with their campsite neighbors. On Saturday, 10/10 they hiked to the top of a nearby mountain. Stef thought the purpose was to conquer the intense rock scramble at the top, but Matt knew better. After they enjoyed a packed lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches, goldfish, and beef jerky, Matt asked Stef to face the view so he could take photos. She thought this was very strange because Matt hates taking photos but she obliged him. When he told her to turn back around he was on one knee and asked her to marry him and she said yes. Clearly ;)