...Welcome to our love story...

It all started with Michelle.. Go ahead Michelle, bask in this moment! Bari and Michelle (Matt's step sister) worked together in the wedding industry, and were in an accountability group together. For the few years they knew each other, apparently Michelle had always wanted to set Bari up with Matt, but timing was never right. And then August 2020, at a wedding vendor picnic, Michelle told Bari she wants to set her up with her step brother for real, and Bari politely declined, after dealing with some big traumatic life events recently BUT a few weeks later, Michelle was still persistent, and had stalked Bari's life to show her family photos of her, to see if Matty would be interested. Bari began to get excited, thinking "wow, she really thinks I'm good enough to be set up with someone she loves so much?!".

And so September 5th, 2020 in San Mateo at the Kaffehouse, a gorgeous Matt showed up, and a frazzled Bari tripped on her purse right in front of his face before even getting a chance to properly say hello. It was love at first sight. We spoke about our lives, spending time with our families, our love for the MTV show The Challenge, and most importantly, Matty's dog, Saint. A beautiful great dane boxer mix, who is a big ball of love. Matty showed Bari a picture of him, and she just knew that no matter what, she was destined to meet this dog and become best friends with it. And what a bonus, that she though Saint's owner was pretty cute too ;)

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when you know, you know

... it was meant
2 be [wondo]

And so after 3 dates, with the 3rd date being spending the 1st Sunday of Football Sunday watching the games together, Bari went to New York for 3 1/2 weeks, and Matty called and facetimed every day, and they officially became boyfriend/girlfriend while on opposite coasts. Back in the Bay, Matty picked Bari up at SFO with flowers in hand, and from that moment onwards, they were inseparable. It wasn't long before Matty took Bari to meet the entire family, and it also wasn't long before Bari felt right at home with all of them. 2 months into dating, it was decided, they would move in together. And with that, they made a home at 2837, filled with so much love, beautiful decorations, and lots of doggy cuddles.

And after all of the pizza nights, way too many football games and golf tournaments on tv, countless target runs, dance parties in the kitchen, 1st holidays together, hundreds of shows binged, and so much more, they find themselves a year into their relationship, engaged, and more in love than ever, surrounded by such wondoful family and friends!

On July 18th, 2021 at Hap Magee Park in Danville, Matty asked Bari to be his forever, and after ugly crying a lot, she screamed "YES, YES, YES!".