Matt and Sarah met in the summer of 2017 at a bar called Tin Roof in downtown Cincinnati. Sarah was out with friends while Matt was out with his brother, Brian. Matt saw Sarah across the bar and could not stop looking back at her while she danced around with her friends. Sarah’s friend noticed Matt's glances and dared Sarah to go up and talk to him. Thanks to a little liquid courage and her friend's watchful eye, she marched her way over to Matt who was in total shock. Sarah’s brilliant first line was “What are you looking at?” And the rest, as they say, is history. Matt and Sarah's first date was to a great chicken joint called The Eagle in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati. However, Matt likes to say their first date was a few months later (February of 2018 - maybe more than a few) when he took her to Nicola's, an iconic Italian restaurant in Over-the-Rhine.

On November 6th, 2021, Matt and Sarah were visiting her family in Toledo for her younger brother's (Zach's) birthday. Sarah thought it was a weekend to celebrate Zach - she even planned most of it herself! She was so focused on making Zach's 21st birthday a big success that she had no idea something was awry. Matt asked Sarah if she wanted to visit a local park that they hadn't been to before because it was such a beautiful fall day and she said yes, no questions asked. Meanwhile, Matt knew they HAD to be at this park by noon at a certain location so the secret photographer (who he had never met) could capture the big moment. While on their walk just five minutes before Matt proposed, Sarah jokingly got down on one knee inside of a gazebo and asked Matt to marry her. He kept his cool and calmly responded “I’d probably say yes," while the ring box was uncomfortably digging into his stomach as it was hidden in his waistband. A few hundred yards down the trail while walking across a tree-covered bridge, Matt turned to her and returned the question. She was completely shocked and of course said "YES!"