Matthew & Samantha

We met in college within the first few weeks of being on campus. It all started when I (Samantha) sat next to a girl in Sunday School, who we now know as Becca, and asked to borrow a pen. We hit it off, and I asked if I could sit with her in church. She agreed and told me along the way that she usually sat with her brother and his roommate. I walked into the Crowne Center, saw Matthew, and our lives changed forever.

After being friends throughout college, we went our separate ways at graduation, or so we thought. Little did we know that God had other plans to bring us back together. Our friend Danielle reconnected our friend group from college by doing video chats to catch up on what was new in everyone’s lives. But as we all started talking, the two of us began talking more and more on our own. I (Matthew) realized what was going on, told Samantha that she liked me, and then later remembered to tell her I liked her too and asked her out.

Knowing that Samantha was the one for me, I devised a plan. We agreed to have dinner in Missouri after Samantha got off work. We had planned to go hiking the next day at my suggestion, so I drove down three hours early to scope out the trail. I found the perfect cliff and tied a sign to put my phone on the day after. I then booked it through the rest of my six-mile hike only to be two hours late for our date.

The next day, we had our picnic and hike as planned. When we went off trail to the cliff, Samantha was so excited by the view that we sat down and enjoyed it and had a little photo session where she unknowingly took her own engagement photos. Then as we were about to leave, I pointed out the sign and suggested that we take one last photo. As I set my phone to record instead of on a timer, I told her I had a poem to read. When I got it out of my backpack, she saw me slip something else into my pocket. I read her a poem I had written for the big moment, got down on one knee, and asked her to marry me. She said yes, and here we are today.

Now, we are excited to get married and spend the rest of our lives together. We hope you will join us in celebrating this special day.