The lovely couple met while working at Lowe’s. Matthew was quiet and didn’t really interact with anyone, while Elvira was very outgoing and joked around with everyone. They didn’t fully connect until Whitney (one of Elvira’s maid of honors ) and an old friend FaceTimed him, but he didn’t answer. So, of course, they asked Elvira to FaceTime him, and he answered— and the rest was history-along with the infamous haircut haha. Since the first time they hung out, they never left each other’s side. They spent a lot of one-on-one time for a solid year before introducing Matthew to Elvira's daughters: Aleeah, who was only two, and Jazzlyn, who was four. Once he met them, he completely fell in love, and since then, he’s never left their side either. It takes a very special person to dive into a relationship with someone who has children, and when I say he never hesitated, he truly didn’t. Matthew, Elvira, and the kids had their first family outing to the pumpkin patch, which was the moment they knew things were meant to be. A blended family at its finest. Fast forward to December 15, 2020, when all their lives changed as they welcomed Presley Rose into the world. Life as a family of five just got better with each passing day. The love and joy the family experienced were unexplainable. An engagement was never really talked about between the couple; Elvira and Matthew would randomly mention their wants for marriage and what a dream engagement entailed. Matthew had a few ideas in mind, but they couldn’t line up with their life. All the siblings were busy the few times he tried to get everyone together. So, getting the parents on board without even telling them the plan was Matthew’s goal. He then decided to book a photographer for "family photos" because Elvira had been mentioning they needed to take some. Matthew mentioned to Elvira on a Wednesday that they had pictures on that Sunday, which was New Year's Eve. Elvira didn’t really think anything of it, aside from freaking out that she only had a few days to come up with outfits for five people. Leading up to that day, things seemed normal—until the morning of the surprise engagement. It was starting to rain, and Elvira noticed Matthew looking at the weather a lot; he also avoided her all morning. There was a little “what if” in Elvira’s thoughts as they were leaving, which had never happened before. But then she looked at Matthew’s pants pockets and thought to herself, “There’s no way he could fit a ring box in those pants,” and then the chaos of having three kids took over. On the way to the picture site, it rained even harder, and Matthew was looking very nervous. They got to the park, but he told everyone to wait while he called Elvira’s dad and his mom to see where they were. He got back into the car and said they had to head to a different park that had a covered area. So, Civic Park was the next stop. They got there and started taking pictures with Pam (Matthew’s mom), Elvira’s parents, and the kids. They were all very cold and wet; it was not smooth sailing. Seconds before Matthew got on one knee, the sky cleared, and the rain stopped. The couple likes to think that Jack, Matthew’s father, a sweet guardian angel, cleared the sky for him. Matthew surprised not only Elvira but the entire family by asking Elvira to marry him. He gave a very loving speech that Elvira blacked out from— haha, all she could hear were the kids screaming with shock and joy! The day was perfect, and they celebrated by getting Panda with their little family while ringing in 2024 as a newly engaged couple. Cheers to their love story and to their big day!