Matt initially met Sarah in June 2014 at his cousin Rachel's 21st birthday party (Sarah and Rachel had been close friends since freshman year of college). They chatted briefly that night, but the real story began eight months later with a trip to Ann Arbor. For years, Rachel had been insisting Matt come visit her at school before she graduated, so with graduation just months away, time was running out. Matt, along with his friend Shawn, boarded a plane to Michigan for what was supposed to be a weekend of eating Zingerman’s and pretending they were still in college. Needless to say, both of those objectives were achieved; Matt left with a full belly and a huge crush on Sarah. Of course, the highlight of Sarah's weekend was seeing Matt, which is saying a lot, given that it also included Zingerman's. The rest is history, and no Penn Stater has ever been so happy that they decided to visit the University of Michigan.

As Sarah’s friend Jordana put it, “only Sarah would be engaged before most of the East Coast is even awake,” and while that statement could not be more true, proposing at the crack of dawn was the only way Matt could ensure Sarah wouldn’t catch on to his plan. At 7:15am on July 10th, 2021, Sarah left her parents’ shore house in Ventnor, NJ with her mom to head to a beach yoga class. What Sarah didn’t realize was that their families had arrived at 6:45am to set up the perfect proposal on the beach that Sarah grew up going to. Matt popped the question, they popped champagne, and the deed was done before 8:00am.