It’s Valentine’s Day weekend and what better way for Operation Homefront to honor Cupid than with a meet-cute story that ends in a wedding six weeks later. Yup, six weeks! Army veteran Amanda Schroeder shared the story of how she and her husband Matt Schroeder, also an Army veteran, met, fell in love, and surprised their families after they eloped.
Amanda served in the Army from 2000 to 2003 and Matt served from 2000 to 2005, including a deployment to Afghanistan. They were both linguists and in military intelligence. They have two kids, Emmanuelle, 16, and Kenneth, 12.
Here is how Amanda recaps their amazing story:
We have a really beautiful love story, I think.
We went on a date and six weeks to the day after the first date, we were married.
My roommate in the barracks, Melissa (aka Mel), played on our company’s softball team, and my husband, who was in our company, played on that team too. I had noticed him before but hadn’t talked to him.
The only game we lost that year was against the Marines. After the game, there was a Marine who talked to Mel and he asked us if we wanted to go get a beer later and we said ‘yes.’ So, after the game, and our dismal loss, Mel and I are packing up to go back to the barracks and she told me I needed to bring a date. She was wanting to send a clear message. She said, ‘I don’t care who but you need to bring a date.’
She looks around like a crazy person and her eyes settle on Matt and she says, ‘take Schroeder.’ I saw him several months before on post. I thought he was smoking hot. I walked up to him and asked if he wanted to get a beer. We go out and I’m driving with Mel sitting up front and Matt is in the back. I didn’t even know his first name because everyone always called him Schroeder. Eventually he said, “You can call me Matt” and I said, “Why would I do that?” His reply was “Because that’s my first name.”
Mel tells us we need to pretend that we are dating and told us to hold hands. We get out of the car and we’re holding hands walking through a brewery but it’s in Monterrey, California, and it’s super romantic, right next to Fisherman’s Wharf.
We were sitting outside because we were smokers back then. We just connected so strongly and really bonded over discussing our love of travel and literature and things that really impacted our lives, our hopes and dreams. I went to light my cigarette and he just swoops in and kisses me.
And I was almost sad. Here was this super-hot, perfect person who was going to be gone for a year.
But I knew I would marry him. I called my mom when I got back. She asked how my day was. I told her I went on a date and that it was really good. I said you are going to meet this guy because I am going to marry him.
Apparently, the next week he had talked to his mom too and told her he had found the one.
We eloped and didn’t tell anybody. Nobody knew except our platoon sergeants and first sergeants, Mel, who set us up, and my best friend from France. When I told her about him, she bought an open-ended ticket. Because I was in the barracks, she had no place to stay so my platoon sergeant let her stay with him and his wife. She was my witness. (Amanda’s daughter is named after her best friend and will be traveling to France this summer to stay with her.)
We met on May 15, 2001 and got married on June 29, 2001. My parents were even in town, which was crazy. My mom is still mad about that!
I was 24 and he was 27. We weren’t babies by any means. Matt and I both had lived on our own since 18. I had lived abroad for two years and worked for another foreign government for a year. We both traveled. I taught English in France. He was a biochemist. We were both pretty confident that we were a good fit.
We told our parents after 9/11. When 9/11 happened, my mom was panicked. It was a terrifying, terrifying time. I told my mom and I asked her if she still wanted a wedding. On our one-year anniversary we had our big wedding and we’ve been together ever since.
We are so well-suited for each other, but very different in personality. I battled breast cancer in 2013 and my personality changed a bit, but before that I was a huge extrovert. I had my hand in every pot on base, any social event, I was very present. And Matt’s just, well, he’s quietly excellent.
Because of my injuries from service are frequently aggravated, I can’t work. However, I see it as having an amazing opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom. My husband is a police officer, which is a really weird job for him because he was a research scientist. He’s really good at it. I can say I’m married to one of Portland’s finest.
And I love our love story.