A lot of people ask how Tommy and Emily met. Occasionally Tommy will say they met at a football game, or Emily will say at a party. Both of which are true, but here is the true story…

Tommy and Emily met towards the end of 2014. A high school senior at the time, Tommy was attending Ocean City High School while Emily was a junior at Bishop Eustace Preparatory School. It all started at an Ocean City football game in October. Tommy was watching the game while Emily was nearby in the stands when her eyes fixated on him. Despite living in Mullica Hill at the time, Emily knew all the Ocean City boys, although she had never seen this one. Unfortunately, no contact was made and the 4th Quarter came to an end and Tommy dispersed with the rest of the crowd, leaving Emily with only questions. Who was that? Where was he from?

Around Halloween, Emily was attending a party in Ocean City. She couldn’t believe her eyes when in walked the same boy from the football game. In a flash, she nudged her way through people, making her way over to a friend behind Tommy. Only a few feet apart at this point, Emily began to talk to her friend very loudly, almost yelling, hoping that Tommy would turn around and notice her. However once again, Tommy escaped from Emily’s sights and she was left with even more questions.

A month later after attending a funeral, Tommy walked into the Upper Township Community Center in a tight black suit looking dapper as ever for his CAL Basketball game. Simultaneously, Emily was dropping off a close friend and neighbor to the basketball game. Upon seeing Tommy, she yelled out of her car window, “TOMMY MATERA I LOVE YOU!”. Unfortunately, Emily’s shriek fell upon deaf ears as Tommy was already mentally locked in for his game.

It wouldn’t be long before both of their dreams came true. Later that month, Emily was attending another party when she noticed another partygoer was snap-chatting Tommy. “Who are you snap-chatting?”, she asked. The girl replied “Tommy Matera, you could never get him”. That was all Emily needed to hear. She snatched the girls phone out of her hands and sent Tommy a selfie with the caption “Snapchat me”, and Tommy did just that. Snapchats turned to texts and texts turned to a first date!

On December 29th, 2014, Tommy and Emily went on their first date to Tokyo Mandarin in Marmora. Tommy and Emily enjoyed the time they spent together, meeting each other’s friends and family. On February 7, 2015, Tommy asked Emily to be his girlfriend, to which she happily accepted.

Later that year, Tommy would head off to St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. In 2016, Emily began her freshman year at Palm Beach Atlantic in West Palm Beach, FL. Long distance was a new experience for both of them but they made it work. 2 years later, Emily would transfer back home and attend Stockton University, where she joined ZTA! Tommy graduated in 2019 and now works at JPMorgan in Newark, Delaware. Emily graduated in 2020 and now owns her own online women’s boutique store and works as a travel agent, booking vacations to Disney and everywhere else (Hit her up!).

Tommy and Emily got an apartment together in June, 2021 on the riverfront in Wilmington, DE. In October of 2021, they welcomed Teddy the Cavapoo to the family!

On June 24, 2022 in Tortola BVI, Tommy and Emily walked down to the beach at sunset, where he asked her to marry him! She said YES!