Hannah and Matt were both in the Marching Illini throughout college. After every rehearsal, the band kids living at Newman would race back to the dining hall before it closed and crowd around 4-5 combined tables to eat together. They met at one of these dinners in the fall of their freshman year. The meals continued into basketball season, during which they both participated in basketball band. They started dating at the end of their freshman year and have been together ever since!

On March 1, 2020, Hannah’s family attended the Indiana at Illinois basketball game. After the Illini beat the Hoosiers, Matt forced Hannah to go with him to "get a new sousa hat from the sousaphones." Very reluctantly, Hannah followed. When they got down to the band, Matt took Hannah onto the court, knelt down, and asked her to marry him. She said yes and the band helped them celebrate by playing Oskee Wow Wow.

We first met Hannah and Matt at her sister Sarah’s small Covid wedding last summer. We knew from celebrating with Sarah and Dean how important the University of Illinois is to their whole family, and expected plenty of U of I fun at both of these sisters’ 2021 wedding celebrations. Conrad and I both had the best time taking Hannah and Matt’s engagement photos last winter at her parents’ home outside of Lake Geneva – the fresh snow on the ground made that afternoon feel magical. One of our favorite moments from that day was when Matt lovingly warmed up Hannah’s hands after making snow angels together for an epic drone shot. These two are so sweet together, and a magical sprinkling of snow on their wedding day meant that we could recreate that moment at Makray Memorial Golf Club! Between the stunning fall colors, the meaningful ceremony at Holy Family and then the delicious meal and packed dance floor at Makray (they even had an indoor s’mores station!) this was truly the perfect day!