How We Met
I first saw Matt, in 2009, during my freshman year of college, bartending at a bar called Jerky’s. I remember looking over to a few friends and saying, “Oh my God! Who is that?? I love him so much!” And one of the girls responded, “Oh, that’s Matt Middleton. He graduates this year.” I responded: “I will marry Matt Middleton!” Everyone laughed it off and we moved on with our night.
The next day, I Facebook friended Matt, and we started talking and exchanged numbers. I was head over heels with him even though I knew he was graduating and he didn’t want to date. I used to ask Matt to be my date for all my sorority events, and he was always the best date ever! I remember telling my family and friends: “I will marry him! I just love him so much!”
Needless to say, Matt graduated and I was devastated to think that he would soon be leaving! I wrote him a very long letter telling him what an amazing person he is, and I wish that one day we would cross paths again.
Eight years went by before Matt and I reconnected on Instagram. We started texting, then Facetiming, every single day since June 16, 2017. We Facetimed every night for a month straight before he asked me if I would go to Narragansett, Rhode Island with him to visit his best friend and, at the time, his best friend’s fiancée (now wife). July 22 he picked me up from Boston and we spent the weekend in Narragansett. It was truly the most magical weekend.
The saying is very true: “When you know, you know!” My son, Sebastian, was a little over a year when he first met Matt, and you could tell it was just meant to be. At the time, Matt lived in Hoboken, NJ, and I lived in Mass., so we did the long distance for a little over a year before Matt moved to Mass. and we all moved in together. We have been inseparable since!
How They Asked
Matt and I had been traveling a lot at this point. We had a beautiful, romantic trip planned to Hawaii, and I could’ve sworn he would’ve proposed then, but that didn’t happen. He expressed how important it was to him to have Sebastian as part of our special day, and I couldn’t agree more.
Matt’s birthday is April 19, and we planned for his family to come down and share in our Easter Egg Hunt which took place the Saturday morning before Easter Sunday. I had planned this big hunt: printed and laminated maps for Sebastian, made reservations for brunch for Matt, and invited a few of his nearby friends and both of our families to join us in celebrating his birthday. Needless to say, he had something totally different in store for me!
It was downpouring April 20, the day of our egg hunt and Matt’s birthday brunch! We got up early, got ready and still had plans to go into the city, since brunch was still on. I kept telling Matt, “If it’s raining this hard in Boston, we’re 100% not doing this hunt! If you and Seb want to do it, great, but I’m definitely not going to do it in the pouring rain!” He kept reassuring me that the weather app said that it was going to be clear for an hour, which was the time we’d planned on doing the hunt.
I texted my cousin who lived in Boston and she also reassured me it wasn’t raining there. (That was a lie: It was down pouring!) Matt, Sebastian and I drove into the city. Luckily, the weather had cleared up! Sebastian was so excited for his Easter egg hunt! We had a total of five stops to make during this hunt, and in every plastic egg hidden at each stop, there was a different task for Sebastian before he could move on to the next stop. The tasks consisted of things like, “What sound does a horse make?” “What sound does a duck make?” etc. Before our last stop on the Boston Common bridge, Matt asked if we could go the long way so Sebastian could have more fun and run around.
Now before I share what happens next, I should point out that I thought Matt was going to propose for months, so every single move he made, I questioned it, thinking, “Is this going to be it?!”
So when Matt asked if we could go the long way, the first thing I thought was, “OH MY GOD, IS HE GOING TO PROPOSE?” We kept walking around the park, and from a distance, I saw on one of the wooden benches that there were these beautiful long-stem roses laying there and I immediately thought they were for me! Turns out they weren’t. I got sad, and said to myself, “OK, he’s not proposing right now, Marina, relax.” The second we walked by the roses, I looked up and saw these MASSIVE HUGE 4X4 letters come up on the beautiful Boston Common bridge that spelled out “MARRY ME.” I broke down into tears!
I then noticed there was a guitarist playing music and a field of rose petals. Matt had planned the most beautiful proposal I have ever seen. Before he asked me to marry him, he got down and gave Sebastian a cute little necklace that had their picture on one side, and on the other, it said, “I will love and protect you always.” If that didn’t make me cry enough, Matt then stood up and told me how much he loved me before getting down on one knee and proposing!
Once I said yes, he pointed out that the people holding those massive MARRY ME letters were our family and friends who had traveled from near and far: Mass., New York and Denver. Matt had a photographer and videographer there capturing the entire proposal. What I didn’t know was that he’d taken Sebastian to meet the videographer earlier in the week to record the most beautiful message for me. Please enjoy our video, grab some tissues and I hope you cry as much as I did!
Matt, I love you with all my heart, and I will spend the rest of my life showing you how amazing you are.
Once I said yes he had pointed out that the people holding those massive MARRY ME letters were our family and friends who had traveled from near and far- Mass, New York, and Denver. Matt had a photographer and videographer there capturing the whole entire proposal, what I didn’t know was that he had taken Sebastian to meet the videographer earlier in the week to record the most beautiful message for me. Please enjoy our video, grab some tissues and I hope you cry as much as I did!
Matt, I love you with all my heart and I will spend the rest of my life showing you how amazing you are!!
