If you ask me, we met the summer of 2005 at Middle School Rec Camp. I distinctly remember a tall, skinny, shy dude pegging me with dodgeballs at full force, no mercy (safe to say, it was NOT love at first sight). If you ask Matt... (Matt, here) I don't remember much of Rec Camp. But I do remember sitting behind a cute girl during Spanish class my freshman year. I hated Spanish but the view was great... so I stuck with it. Fortunately for me, it paid off and we started dating our junior year. (Christine, again) Things really began when we got back to school beginning of our junior year. Matt and I had the same History class (and Chemistry, Spanish & English class...) and I decided to send him a message... while he was sitting directly across the room from me. After that, the rest is history. Matt asked me to be his girlfriend after the SPHS Homecoming Football game in October 2009. Now it's been over a decade and we are beyond excited to be planning our wedding and to celebrate our big day with all of you!

There are no words to say other than Matt truly went above and beyond with the proposal. For those of you who don't know, Matt ended up planning a surprise trip to St. Lucia and proposing to me on the beach. It all started with secretly messaging one of my coworkers to get my boss' email and requesting the necessary time off for the trip. On Friday, May 18th, 2018, I got home from work to brand new suitcases sitting in the living room... that's when Matt said, "SURPRISE!!! Pack your bags! We're leaving for St. Lucia in the morning!" Of course I was shocked and confused all at the same time. "What do you mean?! I have to work next week!" And Matt slyly responding, "Don't worry, I already emailed your boss and got it off for you." Time to pack my bags, we were off to St. Lucia first thing the next morning. We got in late on Saturday and ended up having a relaxing night the first evening. Sunday was our first full day and Matt had mentioned he wanted to make sure we had a nice dinner that night. When we were headed out the hotel room door to dinner, Matt said, "Let's walk the long way on the beach so we can catch the sunset since we missed it last night!" Of course, me being a sucker for sunsets, I didn't hesitate for even a second. As we started walking, I noticed this photographer taking photos of a group of girls in front of us. We kept on walking and that's when I noticed the photographer was trying to hide behind a beach chair and the group of girls were behind us... that's when I realized he was taking photos of US! I looked up at Matt who was smiling and nodded for me to look down the beach… that's when I saw it. A huge heart that was made up of candles and rose petals and the words "Will You Marry Me?" Matt took my hand and led me into it and got down on one knee. Needless to say, I said YES!!! We then enjoyed the next week in paradise celebrating the engagement after 8 1/2 years together before heading back to the states officially as fiancé & fiancée!