Lauren & Matt in Valle Crucis, NC

For Lauren and Matt, timing was everything. They met at a birthday party for a mutual friend shortly after Matt moved to the area. Lauren was just leaving when the two were introduced, but they exchanged numbers. Their first date was a two-hour lunch at a local pizzeria, where Matt showed up with fresh-picked flowers. “I’m not sure if we even ate a bite,” Lauren says. The Bride Lauren Garber, 32, assistant professor The Groom Matt Lake, 36, geographic analyst The Date April 7 After less than a year of dating, the couple spent Christmas with Matt’s family, and after seeing how much his family loved her, Matt decided that “time was a-wastin’,” he says. The day after Christmas, Matt suggested that he and Lauren go for a walk through a state wildlife preserve. It was there that he proposed to her with her grandmother’s ring under the open sky. They were married only four months later at a historic inn.