In January 2021, Matt flew to LA to ask Coco’s parents for permission to marry their daughter. After a few twisted arms, they said yes, and welcomed Matt to the family. The plan was for Matt to pop the question over the summer, as the two had planned a scuba diving trip to Croatia. Well, needless to say that scuba trip never happened (you can help make the mulligan happen here, but more on that later). And layoffs and pay cuts made buying a diamond ring look like a scary proposition, as most of Matt’s savings were now earmarked for black market toilet paper. But the time spent cooped up in their apartment together deepened Matt’s resolve to pop the question. And all the cancelled plans gave Matt time to ruminate on how to still make the proposal feel more extraordinary than the times at hand.

 

Fortunately, Matt had a secret weapon: he was going to be marrying into a spectacular family. And the family had plans to converge at Coco’s parent's house for a week in July. Matt told the Goetzes that he was going to propose while they were all together, as family was so incredibly important to Coco. But while Matt expected the family to be supportive (he had, after all, twisted all the right arms in January), he didn’t expect them rally around the cause as they did, scouting beaches for perfect lighting, arranging a takeout meal from a family favorite restaurant, and even stringing up hundreds of feet of Christmas lights in the backyard over the course of a full week.