How We Met: We met at a leadership conference that my church was hosting. I knew he would be there because I asked him via Facebook if he would. We were aware of each other thanks to mutual friends, mutual interests and several liked statuses on social media. He came with friends and as soon as I saw him I walked up, hugged him and officially introduced myself. We spent that evening together as I gave him a tour of downtown Nashville. And over the next three days I became convinced that my life was about to change.
how they asked: I had been waiting for over a year to see the Newsies. I finally had my tickets in hand. The whole night was planned. Newsies, dinner, a walk downtown. It would be perfect. And then it rained. Matt had mentioned several times that he wanted to go downtown very early. I was convinced that was a terrible idea. With my hair fixed and high heels on I did not want to spend hours walking around and waiting for the show to start. We finally settled on a reasonable time and headed that way. It was still sprinkling and I was in no rush to get out of the car. “Has it stopped raining enough?” he continued to ask and eventually I agreed. We walked under the pedestrian bridge and he suggested that we go to “Our Spot”. It’s this little lookout by Cumberland Park where we both first said I love you, (at different times). I thought it would be a better idea if we waited until later but he was insistent. So we walked. Off to the side I saw a friend of mine standing with his guitar. I started to wave but realized that he was already walking toward me. Then another friend came out and started singing to what he was playing. It was our song, (Dreams, by The Cranberries). Suddenly there were cameras and videos being shot by my best friends. And all I could say was, “what are you guys doing here?”. We walked a little more, now with our paparazzi, and two more friends came out from under umbrellas. They both handed me a yellow balloon and then walked away. Matt was now guiding me as I had no clue what was happening. Three more friends, three more balloons, now I’m crying. I should mention that balloons are my favorite thing and yellow is my favorite color. Then my brother and girlfriend hand me two more balloons. We get to the stairs that lead to the lookout and a friend from out of state and her little girl are standing there too. Everyone I loved was here to not only watch, but make this happen…except my parents. As we walked down the steps I realize that my mom and dad aren’t here, and while I’m still going to say yes, I wish they were. We took a few more steps and I see my dad. That was it, I was sobbing. My dad handed me a balloon and my mom handed Matt my great grandmothers ring. We walked to the edge and he finally got down on one knee after saying something about he wants to spend the rest of his life fighting over whether Star Wars or Lord of the Rings is better. And we will. And I said yes!