If you ask me (Mackenzie), our story is one of love at first sight. However, if you ask Matt, I apparently don't accurately remember the first time we met. According to Matt, we introduced ourselves during the first week of school at the University of Wisconsin Madison in our residence hall, Chadbourne. (We still hold Chadbourne in a special place in our hearts--it must have been fate for us to both randomly select rooms on the same floor. It's also the place where we met some of our best friends, who still lovingly refer to themselves as “Chad's Kids”). However, if you ask me, I do not remember this encounter. The first time I consciously remember meeting Matt was at a party off campus. Kendra, Darren, and I were leaving the party early and Matt asked if he could walk back to Chadbourne with us. On the walk back, Matt and I got to talking and as soon as he smiled his infamous smile at me, I was a goner. I remember telling Kendra as soon as we got back to our dorm room that I had a crush on Matt.

Fall 2016 passed with a lot of awkward flirting until finally, in January of 2017, Matt asked me to be his girlfriend. The rest is history (but I’ll give you a recap of it, anyway).

While college had its ups and downs, I’ve always been incredibly grateful for Matt’s presence in my life during those years. From leaving me encouraging notes on my desk, to bringing me Redbull during late night study sessions, to helping me apply for internships, and going on frequent “mental health walks” down Lakeshore Path, he was the best support I could’ve asked for. While I don’t want to speak on Matt’s behalf of what kind of support I provided to him during college, I at least know I introduced him to his love of coffee and got him to eat more vegetables (which is debatably equally as important).

Needless to say, my college experience would not have been what it was without Matthew. This is especially true because he encouraged me to study abroad despite my incessant pleas that I did not want to go to London for a semester because, and I quote, “The British are evil” (American education and anti-colonial propaganda had really done a number on me). But after many chats while walking along Lakeshore Path, Matt wore me down and we both decided to study abroad during the spring semester of our sophomore year. I’m sure my parents were concerned when, after a year and a half of dating a mysterious man from New Jersey, I told them I wanted to go with him to the foreign land of England for five months.

In January 2019, Matt and I left the United States headed towards Rome and then London, my first time ever going to Europe. We lived in the Marylebone neighborhood of London and quickly fell into a routine of going to Tesco for 5 £ Meal Deals, walking through Regent Park, and planning out which European city we wanted to visit next. Within 5 months, we traveled to 13 countries and mastered our travel regimen: Matt would find all the cultural must-do’s (mostly architectural marvels and art museums) and I would meticulously research what restaurants and local cuisines we needed to try. We struck a perfect balance and continue to love traveling together to explore new cities, learn new things, and try new food.

Ask either of us, and we’d probably say that studying abroad was when we realized we wanted to be together for the long haul. During those five months, we were thousands of miles away from our friends and family, but we took care of each other, never ran out of things to talk about, and didn’t get sick of each other even when we were stuck in airports for hours. By the end of the semester, we realized it wasn’t just the big adventures we loved—we also loved doing all the monotonous, everyday things together. When we returned from our semester abroad, we couldn’t wait to keep doing life together and finding new adventures along the way.

This sentiment of not getting sick of each other was tested when COVID-19 ended up isolating us in my mom’s townhouse in Lakeville, MN. Not only was the country being ravaged by a new, deadly virus, but we were stuck in LAKEVILLE with my mom, Juan, Preston, and his decrepit cat Scribbles McWhiskers. Somehow, despite being exposed to Preston’s late night video game playing (lots of yelling), needing to transition to online courses, and finding Cribbage to be a confounding game that Keri, Dad, Jack and I would play anytime we went to my Dad’s house, Matt not only survived the experience but still seemed to like me. If anything, he seemed to have grown to like my family a lot. This was when I knew Matt was a keeper.

In 2021, we moved to Seattle so Matt could begin working at Microsoft and I could be an Americorps member at College Possible. We loved exploring our new city and I LOVED the rain. We developed a new routine of trying out local coffee shops and going on almost-daily walks around Volunteer Park.

While Seattle was far away from all of our loved ones, we were lucky to find new friends and re-connect with distant family. Fate seemed to have worked its magic once again in that Delaina, my long-lost second cousin, was living near Seattle with her husband, Matt Jones. During one of my first few weeks of living in Seattle, Delaina (and Aunt Kimmy) offered to buy me lunch at Cafe Flora and we became inseparable pretty fast. Me, Delaina, and our two Matts hung out often, which led to competitive games of Spades, eating vegan deliciousness, and lots of laughter. We are so #blessed to have had our Seattle journeys overlap.

In 2022, we welcomed two precious babies into our family: Toto and Penelope (Nelly). I had begged Matt since the start of our move to get one cat and he refused. Then, to my surprise, he eventually said “if we’re going to get one cat, we might as well get two.” I immediately scoured every pet adoption website known to the history of man until we found the cutest tuxedo cats on earth. We went to visit them, fell in love instantly, and now we can’t imagine life without our Big Stinky Boy and Little Pickle Baby.

In 2024, our world was rocked when my older brother Preston passed away unexpectedly. During that time, the support we received from our Seattle community—Julia and Haley, Matt and Delaina, Raph and Max, my book club, and our coworkers—meant the world to us. They showed us so much love during a challenging period, and we remain forever grateful.

This made our decision to leave Seattle that summer a bit hard, but we also knew it was time to go–we lived well, we ate a lot, we overcaffeinated, and we saw everything we wanted to see and more. Matt was tired of being damp and I wanted to finally understand his obsession with the east coast. Once I graduated from Seattle University, we packed our things and headed to the Big Apple.

Our story in Brooklyn is still being written. Our new routine includes Matt walking me to work everyday through Fort Greene Park, taking trips to Manhattan after work to get dinner, and seeing celebrities in the wild and trying to act natural. I love my new job, the cats like to look for rats from our new apartment window, and Matt has been training to run the 2026 New York Marathon. This past year, Rob, Lia, and I got to cheer for him at the Brooklyn Half Marathon and, in typical Matt fashion, he was somehow SMILING while running… When he’s not running, he tries to trick me into going on “short” 6 mile walks around the city and I always convince him that we need to stop and get a treat to enjoy on the way.

On October 26th, 2024, while on a weekend trip in Beacon, Matt proposed and I said “yes” when I really wanted to say “duh, I’ve been waiting for this since I met you in 2016.”

While wedding planning is quite the journey in and of itself, we are very excited to share our love of travel, of eating, of exploring parts of the world before unseen, with our closest family in France next summer. It’ll be a wonderful start to the next chapter in our story: being officially married (finally)!