The story began when Matt, upon moving to Boston a week earlier, decided to go to the temple with a few new friends. Upon entering the temple, he saw Renee, who was working on the evening shift. After a few quick moments of gawking, and thinking, "Man, she is beautiful!" he shook his head quickly and followed up with, "What am I thinking? I'm in the temple, and she's most likely married..." He completely ignored her the rest of the night (well, except for a few well placed glances here and there)! She, on the other hand, thought, "What a handsome guy... I've never seen him around here before, so he MUST be married!" and from then on she didn't pay attention to him either.

At the conclusion of the session, however, Matt was walking out of the temple when, in the nearly empty parking lot, he heard two girls talking very loudly and very bluntly about how they were trying escape the affections of certain guys. He then realized the loudest and most adamant girl was Renee! Finding this funny, and yet a good sign that Renee wasn't married, Matt enjoyed the startled and embarrassed look and apology Renee gave after she noticed him smiling at them as he walked by. Renee thought, "Wow, I sounded like a jerk... Matt will never talk to me again!" Matt thought, "Ha ha! This girl is really cute, AND she's single!" That was the beginning...

Matt saw Renee at a camping trip the next weekend, but didn't quite recognize her. He walked up to her and introduced himself, saying, "You look familiar... have I met you before?" (Yeah, I know, it sounds like an uber-cheesy pickup line, but it was genuine.) Renee responded, "Yeah, at the temple parking lot last Thursday." At this point, remembering the circumstance of the meeting, Matt just stood there and laughed while Renee blushed. Little did Renee know that this is how Matt is: He's ALWAYS laughing and having fun!

Matt finally got some opportunities to talk to Renee on a more personal level the next week at church, despite all the guys who tried to take up her time. He used a "ski-resort in New Hampshire" question as an excuse and broke through her ring of admirers to enjoy a four hour long conversation with her throughout the rest of that day. Despite Renee's thought that Matt wouldn't be interested, she found time to do a lot of things with him. Renee, Matt, and a very good mutual friend, spent almost every day the next couple of weeks hanging out and spending time together.

Shortly afterward (a couple of weeks into their growing friendship), both Renee and Matt KNEW that the other was the exact type of person they were looking for in a spouse, but out of tact, shyness, and propriety (it had only been 3 weeks since they had met, after all!), neither of them even hinted to knowing such things. After several days of fun and long conversations, Matt determined to ask her out, despite the warnings of other guys that he was LAST in a long line of potential suitors.

One month, two dates, and several "late into the night" conversations later, they got engaged on November 17th, 2005. Initially, they were thinking of getting married in June, but really, who wants to wait 7 months to get married? So they then settled on March... until the bishop of her ward strongly counseled them to move up the date. Thus, January 28th, 2006 it was. I bet you can imagine what a scandal that it turned out to be: A Utah boy coming to Boston and marrying a New England girl after just 4 months, when typical courtships and dating here last years...