Matthew and Madison met back in January of 2020 on a dating app called Hinge. After realizing they went to the same school they decided to meet up. After meeting Matthew for the first time, Madison knew in her gut that he was the man she was going to marry one day. Matthew, however, thought she was weird but cute and special. After a little while, they decided to start dating on the 25th of January about two months before the pandemic hit. Those few months leading up to the pandemic were one of a kind and they each knew they had found their person. Although Matthew questioned it when Madison drove off the road into someone’s front lawn only a week into dating. Needless to say, he is glad he stuck around. ;)

Fast forward a few months later, and we are in a nationwide lockdown. This was a very difficult stage of their relationship, one where Madison didn't think they were going to survive. After many tears were shed, and many hours of Facetime, they made it out together and honestly stronger than ever.

Although the past three and a half years together were not all sunshine and rainbows (despite what you may see on social media) we wouldn't trade them for the world. Matthew helped Madison through some of the darkest points of her recovery and if it wasn't for him pushing her and constantly cheering her on, Madison would not be where she is today. Matthew and Madison have not only grown as a couple but have also grown into the people they were always meant to be. Here’s to forever with our very best friend.

Tuesday, July 18th 2023, was a very busy day for Madison and Matthew. They were on the Parmiter Family Beach Vacation enjoying the beautiful sunny day at the beach. At 2pm, Matthew had an interview for an important job and just two and a half hours later, the magical moment occurred. Matthew was already stressing about making sure the proposal went exactly the way he wanted it to, added onto the nerves he was feeling going into his interview. This had been a moment he had been planning since January that year so he wanted everything to go swiftly and the rain to hold off.

At approximately 3pm, the interview finished and Matthew got prepared to initiate the plan. Matthew and Madison’s brother-in-law Luke Marsh huddled together a few minutes before everyone came back from the beach to talk about the sunglasses strategy. The sunglasses strategy was a complex scheme to make Madison think Matthew had to go back to the beach and look for a pair of lost sunglasses; little did she know, Matthew was just setting up the space for the big question.

Once everyone returned to the house everyone got into high gear and began to get ready for the “family photos” that were happening at around 4:30pm. Madison hopped into the shower, RB began running around looking for her Nana and Auntie Madison. Everyone was in full force to get down to the beach for “family photos”

At around 4:00pm, Luke initiated Plan Sunglasses and scrambled around the house to “look” for them. He then asked Matthew to go see if he could find them at the beach since he was the first one ready, which Matthew happily sped off to do. Before reaching the beach, Matthew met up with his mom and step father to grab the ring, some flowers, and a blanket (not losing the ring for eternity in that sand). He then snuck away to the beach and set up his production and eventually met with the photographer.

30 minutes went by and Matthew was getting hot and sweaty waiting for the “Go Time” text indicating Madison was coming. Another 20 minutes went by and then RING! That was fake phone call #1. Then RING! Fake phone call #2. At the house, Luke was trying to get a hold of me to tell me he “found” the glasses and I ignored them. He then asked Madison to go down to the beach to let me know so I would stop trying to look for them. Madison, knowing Matthew would actually spend hours trying to look for them (if they were really lost) didn’t think anything of that and went down.

DING! Matthew got the “she is coming” text from Luke and both him and the photographer got into place. After a minute went by, Madison’s beautiful face peaked over the dunes to see Matthew waiting on a vibrantly colored blanket with flowers. It was at that moment she realized it wasn’t family photos and that she was being asked one of the most important questions in her life.

See, many months before this, Matthew remembered that every beach trip, her family does an evening of family photos where everyone gets cleaned up and dressed nice and fun. He realized he could use that as a sneaky way to get Madison into a dress with makeup and her nails done without any question. He coordinated with her parents, sister, and brother in law to distract her and he coordinated with his mom to bring the ring, flowers, and blanket. This was the perfect plan. He kept tweaking it more and more as time went on to make sure it was all perfect. For a while, he thought Madison even found out secretly, but he kept moving on like she didn’t. Planning and tweaking the plan happened all the way until the morning of when Luke came up with the brilliant Plan Sunglasses. After that, it was all game faces and plan execution.

Back to the beach, Madison was in so much shock when she saw Matthew that she wouldn’t come down the stairs for a few seconds. She was asking questions like “what is happening” and “where is your mom”, not knowing they were a few seconds behind her getting ready to walk to the beach as soon as she walked down the stairs. Excited and wanting Madison to come down the stairs, Matthew told her to just come down already and she did. As she walked down the stairs, she kept asking about my mom and if she was here.

Once she got down to the beach and stood in front of Matthew, Matthew said his brief, but deep speech about her, popped the magical question, and Madison, filled with exuberant amounts of joy, said YES!

The two shared their moment a bit before Matthew told her to turn around for her to see everyone, including his mom and step father. The two of them were filled with so much joy and excitement for where this now takes them in their lives. They knew this was the gateway to forever together and the best life one could ever imagine.