The Kristen Clonan and Matthew Ruiz Engagement

Meet newly engaged couple Kristen Clonan and Matthew Ruiz

New beginnings can happen in the most unusual places. Such was the case with Kristen and Matthew when they met at a mutual family friend’s wake.

They kept in touch through friends and, after a few months, Kristen boldly (and wisely) decided to ask Matthew out on a date.

“We went to Half Moon in Dobbs Ferry for our first date, and the rest was history,” Kristen says.

Their four-year anniversary was approaching, and while they recently had had many conversations about the future, Kristen had just received her Masters and Matthew was starting a new job, so they were both just enjoying the new developments in their life.

They had been trying to plan a vacation for a long time, but because of their work schedules were unable to do so, so they settled on trying to at least get a weekend away.

“Matthew planned a last minute trip to Newport, Rhode Island with the help of my cousin," Kristen says. "They whole thing was very spontaneous—or so I thought. He was acting super weird though the whole day, but I just figured he had gotten bad news from work.”

After a long day of sightseeing, they took what Kristen described as “the longest cab ride of our lives” and eventually asked the driver to stop and let them out, so they could take a walk along the water. “It was a cold and windy night, but the sunset was so beautiful that we kept on walking.”

After a quick rest at a nearby bench, Matthew turned to Kristen and nonchalantly said, “Okay, so I am going to ask you something,” to which she replied “ok,” not thinking it was anything serious.

When he got down on his knee Kristen was so surprised that her initial response was “Shut up! Are you kidding? Is this for real?” He was down on bended knee for almost a full minute before she was able to let it all register and say yes.

“Usually I am 10 steps ahead of him, but Matthew totally caught me off guard with his whole ‘spontaneous’ trip and proposal. I am so glad that it turned out this way though, because if I had anticipated it, it would not have been nearly as special as it was.”

They originally had thought that a destination wedding would be nice, but are leaning towards something more local. Coincidentally, their families are from the same area of the Bronx. Matthew’s parents actually were married in the parish church that Kristen grew up in, so they are seriously considering getting married there, as it has so much meaning for both of them.

Right now they are just enjoying their engagement and celebrated it at their first date location, which has become a special place to them for such momentous occasions.

“I would love a late summer wedding with bright colors, but I also love the fall, so we will see how that goes. Right now all I can think about is how happy I am. The details will work themselves out as we go along.”

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