How it all started…

We spent years at the tip of each other's tongues: transient moments that failed to connect us. Living in almost adjacent Brooklyn neighborhoods, knowing the same people, and even went to prom in the same limo when we attended Midwood High School in 2012. While we signed each other's yearbooks, we walked away from each other with an acquaintance that had no real significance.

We were a serendipitous match, reunited in a time of isolation. The universe sifted through endless swipes on Hinge, to bring us together again so we could discover a love that would fight hard even in lifetimes after this. When we matched it was a dark time…a global pandemic and worldwide stay at home orders were in place. Matt thought it was too good to be true, and Denise thought it was a joke too.

We had a date, Matt made the reservation, and Denise was late (of course).

Denise brought lightheartedness, and Matt brought levity. They walked and talked for hours through Park Slope and into Prospect Park, stopping only to sit on the grass and listen to a neighboring group singing (drunk) karaoke — just begging the night not to end. Weeks later on October 3rd, 2020, and on that same patch of grass in Prospect Park, we played We’re Not Really Strangers, and Matthew *officially* asked Denise to be his girlfriend (because she’s Latina, and thus very traditional).

She said “wait what, really?” and then an enthusiastic yes. This happenstance meeting led to many other enthusiastic yes’…

yes to saying “I love you” only a couple dates in, yes to accidentally meeting Denise’s parents in sweatpants, yes to wearing elf pajamas to put up the Christmas tree, yes to watching Will Ferrell movies, yes to socially distanced quality time, yes to an apartment that gives Sunset Park its name, yes to a wacky dog named Primo…

and the most important yes of all — at Altos de Chavon on October 18, 2022 — yes to spending this life and a million lifetimes after this loving each other fiercely and with the same conviction.