Surprised was an understatement. Karlis hands flew to cover her face as tears welled up in her eyes. Matt was on one knee. And from that moment on, their lives were forever changed.

I was asked to be a part of an INSANE event called Mayhem in the Meadowlands. It was an event held at METLIFE Stadium, Home of the NY Giants. Hundreds gathered as teams to compete in multiple circuit cross fit events. I promise I will explain more in detail about this event when I release the images….but for todays blog post, we are here to talk about the one and only Matt and Karli.

As the long and INTENSE day came to an end, the competitors gathered on one side of the field. Celebrity Cross Fitter, Katie Hogan took the field at the 50 yard line to release the name of the raffle winner of the day. Little did Karli know that this RIGGED raffle would be the way the man of her dreams asked for her hand in marriage.

Below is their love story right from Matt’s lips and his own account of how he planned his epic proposal…

Karli started Crossfit in May of 2012, I started in June of 2012…kind of sappy, but when we first saw each other we both became “infatuated” with one another and would always try to attend class with one another. However, there seemed to be a period near the middle of the month where I wasn’t really catching her in class, so I sought her out via google chat to try to talk with her and get to know her outside the box! On June 23rd, we went to a friend of mine’s BBQ and that was the night of our last first kiss listening to Easton Corbin’s “Loving you is fun” – hence why that was apart of the message to her on the ribbon banner! Ironically we found out that we both work in the same hospital (me a Registered Nurse and her in the Radiation Safety department). This allowed us to have lunch and coffee dates together all the time! I had been planning to propose for a while and had been researching proposal ideas, looking for one that would fit. The idea for this proposal actually came about when I heard her parents were coming to the event to watch for the first time ever. Then the announcement of Katie Hogan becoming the MC was the icing on the cake – Katie Hogan is Karli’s idol! What better place to propose to your best friend – doing Crossfit, with all your closest friends and family around, with Katie Hogan announcing your name and talking to you, along with all those in the incredible crossfit community? So I e-mailed the people from Mayhem asking them about this possible marriage proposal and then got the response e-mail from Big Rob who was probably just as excited about this opportunity as me! The people from the mayhem competition set up a fake raffle that picked one “random” athlete to help Katie Hogan announce the final WOD! Katie then questioned Karli about who she was there at the event with – she of course says to start Crossfit Beyond, so Katie dug deeper by asking Karli who that guy was she saw her jumping on earlier in the day – so then I get called up to join them in announcing the WOD….Katie then reached into her jacket to hand Karli two sheets of paper – one reading “will you” the next “marry me?”….and as the saying goes, the rest is now history!”

I’m so glad everything went to plan for Matt and that Karli said yes (not that it was ever in doubt!). It was an amazing proposal, something so special that they will both remember forever. And Matt did so well with the ring! It was a beauty and Karli clearly adored it from the moment she saw it. I’m not sure what ring Matt is going to get, but I think one of these titanium wedding bands would really match the ring he got Karli. Whatever he chooses, I trust his judgement after what he chose for Karli.