Matthew & Ashley

How it started.

And how it’s going.

Matt and Ashley quickly became friends when their childhood friends started dating. Ashley would come over to Apartment 21 to hang with Kristy, but would stay for hours on the couch laughing, playing games, and eating Stephen’s famous chili. There was something about that couch, and the people on it, that made you never want to leave. Ashley and Matt remained friends for years, but one fateful day at a Buffalo Bills game (as most love stories begin), they both suspected it could be something more.

Fast forward to Labor Day weekend 2018, Matt and Ashley had only been on a few dates, but he asked her if she’d come to his family’s home in Goshen for the holiday weekend. To his surprise, she eagerly accepted. Only a mere hour later, she was introduced to roughly 45 family members. On the drive up, he had said, “So, people are going to ask what you are to me, can I say that you’re my girlfriend?”

Two years and a pandemic later, Ashley planned a 30th birthday surprise party for Matt at that same house in Goshen. But her uncharacteristically chill attitude as Matt’s birthday approached set off alarm bells in his head. He asked his sister if she was planning a surprise. Because if so, he would propose at it. Luckily, his sister denied any party— but still thought to bring the ring. When his friends and family yelled surprise, Matt knew in that moment, that 1. he was going to kill Ashley for throwing him a surprise party when he’s repeatedly told her that he hates surprises, and 2. he was going to ask her to spend the rest of their lives together.

She said, “Yes.”

But who hates surprises?!