If you asked me two years ago if I would be sat here with a beautiful diamond on my finger and a heart full of love I would have spat my tea out, because two years ago I hadn't even met Matthew yet. I always dreamt of finding someone I love and getting married because at the heart of it - i'm a true romantic. The reality was I was 23 and never had been in a serious relationship. Throughout the years I had seen many friends of mine get boyfriends, get married meanwhile all the "things" I had with guys continually seemed to fizzle. They seemed to fizzle for the obvious reason of: they just weren't right for me.
When I met Matthew (let's call him M from now on) it was in one of the times in my life where I didn't want a boyfriend. I was feeling independent and had big plans for myself to move to the UK from Australia. The idea of meeting someone seemed a nuisance and I didn't want anyone to deter me from my ambition of spending a few years in the UK travelling and meeting new people. So of course this is when I met M and our story starts...
21st August 2018, the day we met
I got home from a day being in the city and had a young adults night at my church I was going to attend. In fact I was a leader and was going to go a little earlier to help set up. Just as I was about to leave my brother in-law told me about this English guy coming to the young adults night tonight. My ears perked up. My sister chimed in "yeah I've seen him, he's actually good looking!". So of course I rush back up to my bedroom to get changed into a cooler outfit and refresh my makeup so I look significantly better.
As soon as my brother in-law introduced me to M I instantly thought he was handsome. He was the reserved kind though. Very chilled and quiet, but this made him more mysterious to me. We chatted for a little bit and conversation seemed to flow nicely enough but (sorry M!) he was too reserved for me to gauge whether we had any initial spark. But I did think he was good looking and I was swooning over his southern English accent. That evening when he left he cooly came up to me and said "nice meeting you" and went off. I was a little taken aback by the very simple goodbye and assumed perhaps this cute English guy wasn't as keen on me.
That evening and the next morning I would check my phone to try and see whether he had at least chucked me a follow on any socials. But no. So I got on with the day and after getting back from work I flick onto instagram to see he's followed me and I have a new message: "fancy getting a coffee sometime?". The next few hours entailed me trying to think up how to say yes without sounding too eager but also cool. I eventually replied and we settled on getting coffee a few days later at a indie espresso bar close to where he was staying. The date (well, is coffee really a date-date or too casual for that?) went well and we spent the few hours with conversation flowing and it was nice to see more and more of his personality. I found out we liked the same music (Ben Howard!), tv shows, and had similar interests. At the end I walked away quietly hoping he'd ask me out another date.
And he did.
(What I wore on one of our dates and sent it to my sister for her opinion if it was a winner).
We went on quite a few more dates, one to a brewery then another coffee date. On this last coffee date he bit to bullet and asked me out for a proper dinner. He messaged me later saying he'd pick me up at 6 the next day. It was a whirlwind. Never would I go out with a guy so often in such a short span of meeting him as i'd opt to play cool but our situation was different.
You see M was just on holidays visiting some friends on the Coast where I lived. He was still living in the UK in Manchester where he was half way through his degree of environmental science. The coolest thing about our meeting was...only a few weeks later I had already planned a trip to the UK to go travel around and scout out places i'd like to live when I move there 6 months later. So it was only 2 weeks we had together before I was off so I wanted to make the most of our time together and keep saying yes to things as we didn't have the time to play it cool. In a way I preferred this as it was no games and just us being open to getting to know each other. Plus I knew it was a thing which had potential to develop as it fit in with my plans on moving to the UK.
Also i'll add this in as a fun fact: my mum actually met M a few years ago in 2016 at church when he was over visiting friends and mum remembered thinking "it's a shame Holly's not here, I think she'd quite like him".
On our date he picked me up in a smart white shirt and I took ages to do nice make-up and wear a cute dress. On the way driving there he told me I looked beautiful but he said it ever so cooly in classic M fashion of not taking his eyes of the road and saying it very matter of fact. We had a lovely dinner together and in typical Holly fashion I had drunken 3 glasses of wine and it made me rather tipsy. When we were leaving he asked what I wanted to do so I suggested we go for a walk along the river to finish the date off. M will hate me adding this in but he was rather shy and reserved still in directly admitting to me he liked me. So I had to coax it out. So I plucked up the courage to ask (which wasn't that difficult after 3 wines) where I stood with him. He told matter of factly how it was pretty clear how he felt given he had taken me out for coffee, a brewery, dinner. So I said "well, why don't you hold my hand then?" which he did. We walked for a little bit then as we turned around finally had our first kiss. I mean this is a bone of contention because apparently M seems to think I went in to kiss him first - whereas I maintain it was mutual. I feel like Ross from Friends where he keeps stating "WE WERE ON A BREAK" except it's "IT WAS A MUTUAL KISS". Apparently when he got back from the date he told his friend "date went great, she's more forward than I expected". A little cringe but I own the fact I was a little more forward.
It was now only a few days until I was leaving for the UK so I saw M as much as I could, even seeing him the morning I was leaving. We left both a little sad but he was leaving to go back home in a few days and was determined to see me while I was over in his country.
So we did. He came and visited me in London for 3 days, catching the train to and from his parents place in Eastbourne just to see me. We went to a concert, cooked together, and spent a lot of quality time. I went off to Switzerland and he went back home to Manchester. I decided to cut from trip in Geneva short just so I could go see him before I fly out. So I flew in Manchester for the day and he officially asked me to be his girlfriend and we dived into long distance life.
We tried to facetime every day which was tricky due to our differing timezones but we were adamant on making it work. We'd send each other videos of our days so when the other would wake up we could see what they got up to. It wasn't always easy because sometimes all I wanted was a kiss or a cuddle, and knowing he was 24 hours away made my heart hurt. Three months in he came and visited me for Christmas and spent it with my family. Then three months later (after 6 months of long distance all up) I moved to the UK and upon travelling around still figuring where I wanted to live...I realised that if I really wanted to give us a crack then it'd just make sense for me to move to Manchester.
Since moving here our relationship has flourished. I quickly realized he was the one I wanted to spend my life with. In long distance it was difficult to tell whether or not it'd be a long term thing because although we both really liked each other and had similar life goals it's so different than actually doing life with someone. The mundane things like grocery shopping, cooking dinner together, having date nights etc. After a few months I knew I loved him and he felt the same way. So after almost a year and half together M popped the big question on a walk in the Yorkshire dales - the same place he told me he loved me.
It's been a whirlwind and everything worked out so perfectly that I know it was meant to be. That I met him when I wasn't wanting to date anyone, when I was already moving to the UK and he happened to be from there, he was a strong christian also, that one of the places which offered me a job was in his city, and that it's also his dream to move to Australia.
With any luck we'll still get married this year in September. Here's hoping Because I can't wait to call him my husband.
Holly xx
