Love Story: Jessi & Matt

How They Met

Matt and I first met through work in June 2006. Matt and I both work in public service and deal with interesting people at times. We smiled at each other at the same times during our first meeting. I did not have enough guts to ask him if he was single, but I always wondered. Fast forward to the end of 2008. It was the end of December, just before Christmas, and I was talking with one of Matt's co-workers, George. George was telling me about Matt who "is about 30 and lives in Albany with his cat." He told me Matt is a "nice single guy" who cannot seem to find a nice girl. I reminded George that I was a nice single girl, who also lived in Albany. I told George that he could give Matt my phone number, because it would be cool to go on a date with him. George told me he would pass along my number, but turns out he did not do it. About a week later I was working with another one of Matt's co-workers, Steve. I said, "hey Steve, tell me about Matt." Steve went on and on telling me that Matt was a cool guy, never married, no kids, etc. I asked Steve if he thought he could hook me up. He told me that he would do so - but I found out a few weeks later that he too had failed to give Matt my number.

The First Date (and a few extras)

The Holidays came and went for me and no dates with Matt. Then a few weeks later I talked to a co-worker of Matt's, Todd. I told Todd I needed to know what the deal with Matt was because I wanted to be set up with a good guy. Todd told me that Matt is a "cool outdoorsy guy - a man's man." I told him that I wanted to find out more about him. Todd told me that he would give him my number. About a half hour later my cell phone rang and it was Matt. I was elated. He told me "hey I'm single, you're single, do you want to go to dinner?" I said sure and he told me that he was going diving the next day and planned to be home at 5pm and would call after that. Sure enough, he called that Saturday evening and agreed to pick me up at my house.

We talked inside the house and then walked out the front door to leave. My car was in the garage and his truck was in the driveway. I walked out behind him and he stopped to let me walk to the passenger side of the truck. I did not get the clue. I stopped and just looked at him. He was not walking to the driver's side, so I was confused. I told him I like my neighborhood because I'm at the end of the dead end drive. After a few minutes of small talk, I asked him if he was ready to go and he said yes. I asked him if he wanted me to drive, and he said "no, I'm waiting to open the door for you." I then started laughing, I had no idea men actually opened doors for girls anymore. I felt so embarrassed and he was shocked I never had doors opened for me on a date. The date started off awkward, but when dinner was over I don't think either of us wanted it to end. He asked if I wanted to go to Coldstone for dessert. I'm allergic to dairy, so the place is torture for me, but we went and continued to talk for about an hour. We went back to my house and chatted for a couple more hours.

We dated the next 3 nights straight, then he wanted to cook for me and invited me to dinner at his house for our 4th date. The rest is pretty much history. I knew I wanted this relationship to continue from that date at his house. We continued to have date nights as much as possible with his graveyard schedule. That May was my 28th birthday and he told me to pack my bags for a weekend in Bend. We had a blast and hiked up to a waterfall. It was a romantic birthday, a special weekend, and I felt like I could do many more trips with Matt.

In August 2009 Matt prepared for a large garage sale at his home, beginning on a Friday while I was at work. I came over on my lunch and he got rid of a lot of stuff. He says he did this because he wanted me to move in with him, but I swear he did not say that directly to me. It was one of the hardest garage sales ever, we hauled everything in and out from the garage and into the yard Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The weather was so hot, right around 100 degrees in the last few hours of the sale, and then he asked me to move in with him. I said yes of course - and I moved in September of 2009. We had about 4 of everything and began to prepare for our second garage sale that month.

In April of 2010 we went to Arizona for 12 days as a lot of our family lives there. Matt wanted to drive to bring back some items, which I later learned was cheap Captain Morgans Spiced Rum. I didn't mind a road trip at all, we get along so well and did not even think the trip could be bad or we could annoy each other. Friends and people at work were like "fly." One good friend, Brendan, said "if you two can make it that long in the car together, you will know if the relationship is forever." He was right, the trip was awesome. We sung, picked up bullet casings on the side of the road, did some minimal shopping, and spent time with family. It was a great vacation.

The Proposal

On 6.16.2010 while in Puerto Vallarta, Matt proposed. It was perfect. I had no idea it was coming. He hid the ring from me for weeks. He spent a lot of time doing research on rings, perfect proposals, and done all while up at night on his graveyard schedule. We are getting married 7.8.11 and plan to begin a family shortly thereafter! We could not be more blessed.