We met playing kickball for Charleston Sports and Social Club. Matt had been playing on a team with a group of friends-of-friends, and Emma's lab mate asked her to be a sub one week. After kickball, all the teams would go to Container Bar for trivia. We talked all night, and afterwards Emma kept offering to her lab mate to come back. For the next season, Emma joined the team and looked forward to seeing Matt every week. One week, after the kickball game was over and everyone said 'see you at trivia', we arrived at Container Bar to find that our entire team had ditched us. We placed in trivia that night, and Matt asked Emma out while they swore not to share their winnings with the teammates that abandon them. The kickball season ended shortly after, and was followed by the pandemic. The team unfortunately never made a come back, and we'll never know if our teammates were up to something that night...

For our first date we went to the Kaminksy's dessert bar in West Ashley. We had bonded over our love of red velvet cake, and the monthly special that October was a pink velvet cake. Matt ordered the red velvet and Emma got the special. The server made a comment about us being 'the velvet couple', and we both blushed but didn't correct her. Afterwards, we didn't want the night to end, and we walked over to Charles Town Fermentory where we lost track of time talking for several more hours.

Fast forward several years, and we were taking a trip to Washington D.C. to visit Elle (Emma's sister and maid of honor) for the Savannah Bananas game. We took the morning flight out Atlanta, and were going to arrive with a few hours to go sightseeing before meeting up with Emma's family. On the way there, Matt was lamenting that Theodore Roosevelt Island in D.C. was operated by the National Park Service, and was deceptively similar in name to Theodore Roosevelt National Park (in North Dakota). Emma thought maybe Matt just needed some coffee, and assured him they could go Theodore Roosevelt Island, even if it wasn't a 'real' national park. (We have made a point to visit a handful of national parks since we've started dating, and hope to visit many more.) On the flight over, Matt was listing several other sights he wanted to see once they got there. After we dropped our stuff off at the hotel, we were walking along the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail with our morning coffee, talking about how beautiful the view was and how uncharacteristically empty it was in Navy Yard. While Emma was distracted, Matt got down on one knee and pulled out the ring he was so worried TSA was going to pull out and inspect hours earlier. Emma said yes, and now we can't wait to celebrate with our loved one on December 12, 2025!