The "Our Story" tab has daunted me these many long months since March 15th, 2025. I have to assume most people won't read it, but in case I have some curious guests out there, I would be remiss to let you walk into our wedding cold. So, journey back with me to the warm June night in 2021, when I almost made what would have been the worst mistake of my life: I very nearly didn't go on my first date with Mr. Zachary Michael Jablonski.

Some context: I was 23 and in Pittsburgh, driving all over God's green Earth for a company that would have lit me on fire if it saved them a nickel. As grateful as I was for my entry role into pharmaceutical sales, I had absolutely no intention of putting down roots in Upper St. Clair. In fact, by June, only a few months after I started, I was already trying to find my way back to Ohio to be near my friends and family. Additional context: it was still Covid Time, and the best way to date during the apocalypse was on an app.

Now, if you ask Zack, he will defend us by saying that at least we met on the most "respectable" app, Hinge. If you ask me, I won't be able to help pointing out that when I gave him my number, he opened with, "Hey, it's Zack from Bumble." (I was not on Bumble).

Caught in his apparently-wide net, I couldn't get over how cute and fun this guy seemed in his pictures. Once I realized he was a UD graduate, I knew I had a Catholic boy on the line and that I had to see it through. Now, back to that date I almost didn't go on...

I was homesick, family-sick, friend-sick, you name it, and I was NOT a fan of the Hinge life thus far. I said to myself that one way or another, whether this date went perfectly or terribly, I was deleting that God-forsaken app and getting back home. Well, the date didn't go terribly. It also definitely didn't go perfectly. However, I was right about one thing: after meeting Zack Jablonski, the app got deleted.

Four and a half years later, we have traveled together, moved together, lived in the same city, lived in different cities, navigated leasing apartments, buying a house, and raising a guinea pig (try the Nebby Old Fashioned when you get to the bar). It used to bother me that we didn't have a more organic meeting, but Zack and I have more than made up for that through all of our weird single-degrees of separation, surreal coincidences, and randomly both speaking pretty decent Spanish for a couple of gringos. In his words, "I don't care how we met, just that we did."

Zack is now a financial advisor for LPL, and I am a pharmaceutical representative for Eli Lilly. We live in Miamisburg, OH, and are unapologetic in our love of all things Dayton. Whether it is a Dayton Dragons baseball game, a UD football or basketball game, or coaching for the South Dayton Knights 7th grade offensive line, Zack is "Flyered Up" 24/7. For my part, I am "Flyered Up" reasonably often, which I find acceptable as a proud Miami University graduate. That being said, it will be an honor to receive the sacrament of matrimony in a place that means so much to Zack and has come to mean so much to me.

We love the life we have built here together, and we could not be more excited to start the next chapter.

If you have read this far, thank you for single-handedly indulging me in the rare utilization of my English degree. We feel truly blessed to get to celebrate with you, and we hope you have a BLAST celebrating with us.

Love,

Madysen, co-signed by Zack, who feels that I am "better at this sort of thing."

P.S. Go Steelers.

M&Z

Ceremony

Cocktail Hour

Reception