Matt had sworn off dating altogether, but Lauren caught his eye on a dating app in early June 2022 and he promised to go on one last first date. Even though they both seemed very interesting to the other in their online chats, it took quite a bit of scheduling magic to finally connect in person. Locating one free two-hour window during a very busy weekend, they had their first date at Picnick on June 12, where Lauren promptly ordered the vegan queso and Matt promptly fell in love. The date went so well that Lauren asked Matt out on a second date — and then waited. And waited. Both had out-of-town trips planned the week following their first date, and Matt came home with COVID. Luckily, he wasn’t COVID-ghosting Lauren (as she feared, because she hadn’t had a first date that went that well in a long time), and after date two was rescheduled twice, they had a great time at the Austin Paramount, where Matt introduced Lauren to his lifelong love of old movies by taking her to see Pillow Talk. Very quickly, it became apparent that they were “meant to be” — and after Lauren’s own bout with COVID on another trip, they were quickly inseparable. Family and friends all confirmed what they already knew: This was a very special match indeed.

Lauren saw an Instagram ad for an exhibit called “Field of Light” at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, showed it to Matt, and then completely forgot all about it. Fast forward to late February, and Matt asked Lauren if she wanted to attend. Once he reminded her what the event was, she readily agreed. All week, Lauren wondered if he’d propose on Saturday, and at every step talked herself out of it. He bought the tickets at a “normal” Matt time — “last minute” for a big event. He came to pick her up just as he’d started doing for every date, and even let her finish watching her latest crime show! The telling detail that should have given the whole evening away was that Matt refused to use GPS to cross Austin traffic on a late Saturday afternoon. Lent had just started and Matt told Lauren that as an almost-lifelong Austin resident, it was his Lent goal to be better about navigating Austin without an app. His true motive was that he didn’t want Lauren to see all the texts flying in coordinating the rest of the evening’s plans and wishing him good luck! After arriving at the same time as friends Patrick and Morgan Dinnin, who would serve as photographers for the evening, Matt hurriedly pulled into the furthest parking space from the security entrance (also entirely unusual for Matt, who always seeks out the first parking space) — he needed them to run interference about getting the ring through a metal detector! Finally through security without a hitch, they picked up their large headphones so they could listen to the silent disco the event offered, and Matt “conveniently bumped into” Patrick and Morgan and introduced them to Lauren. His plan worked well, because Lauren thought they might want some alone time and didn’t insist on everyone walking together through the gardens. Just minutes into the walk, Matt insisted on taking the short loop through the trail — to take Lauren to the spot he intended to propose. She started to argue that she wanted to walk the whole trail, but he was insistent. When he suddenly stopped, Lauren thought he was just adjusting his silent disco headphones and started playing with hers as well. Suddenly, Matt was on one knee, holding the ring box upside down and saying, “I love you. Marry me?” Literally stunned, Lauren was speechless for several seconds (or five minutes, if you’re listening to Matt’s version of this story). It was a total surprise, just as Matt had wanted. After many photographs and phone calls and texts to their loved ones, the happy couple celebrated at Bufalina, where they enjoyed a romantic dinner of pizza and wine — one of their favorite meals!