with class
NOW-MARRIED COUPLE KEPT ROMANCE ALIVE THROUGH MIDDLE SCHOOL, HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
EDMOND — When the time came to decide on life after high school, Matthew Hart and Jordan Williams knew one thing for sure.
Wherever they went to college, they would go together.
No long distance romance for this studious, all-in pair.
They had attended the same elementary school, middle school and high school, and their relationship blossomed over the years.
On May 26, two weeks after graduating with honors from Oklahoma State University together, the couple exchanged wedding vows. Williams noted that the wedding venue, The Manor at Coffee Creek in Edmond, was fitting because it wasn’t far from the schools where their love story started years ago.
“It’s like two miles way from where we grew up and went to school every day,” she said. “That’s where our relationship began.” School days
Hart and Williams, both 22, knew each other in elementary school but actually became friends in a pre-algebra class in seventh grade at Deer Creek Middle School. Their lockers were in the same area, and Williams remembers that Hart often helped her open hers.
“I sat next to Jordan by pure chance. I didn’t know anything about her, but we slowly became friends over paper airplanes and me pretending to be a football star. I spent the next year trying to show off any way I could,” Hart said in his version of the couple’s love story on their “Stealing His Hart” wedding page.
By the time the two were freshmen at Deer Creek High School, they knew their bond went beyond friendship.
“He asked me to our freshman Fall Formal. We were like 14 years old,” Hart said recalling those school days.
The couple got the OK from their parents to attend the freshman dance, but Williams wasn’t officially allowed to date until she turned 16. Soon after she reached that milestone birthday, Hart asked her out, and they have been together ever since.
Mike Donnelly, a Deer Creek High School teacher who was Williams’ basketball coach, said he wasn’t surprised to learn that his former students had tied the knot.
“I had both Matt and Jordan in my AP European History class when they were sophomores. I got a chance to watch them interact, and you could tell there was something special between them. They had a good way of joking with one another, and you could tell they really cared about each other,” Donnelly said. “They are both good people good students — high character.”
When the pair both chose to attend OSU, no one was really surprised.
Williams said she lived in what she described as a “house divided,” with family members who are fans of both OSU and the University of Oklahoma. However, her mother, Lisa Fortenberry, is an OSU graduate who proudly watched as her daughter became a fourth-generation OSU graduate.
Hart said they mainly talked about going to one of those colleges, but he
knew his family wanted him to officially become an OSU Cowboy just like many of them.
They both always knew they wanted to do something related to the medical field. Hart majored in biology and will be attending the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center to pursue his medical degree and doctorate degree, with an emphasis on medical research. Williams got her degree in human nutrition/ premedical sciences. She is applying for physician’s assistant school, her mom said.
The pair said they didn’t find it hard to keep their romance alive during college. She joined a sorority, and they both kept up with their academics but still found time for each other.
“I think we’re really good about talking with one another. If there was anyone I was going to tell my deepest, darkest secret, it’s her,” Hart said. “There’s not a second of my day that I don’t wish she was there with me; she’s just so fun.” Williams shared similar comments.
“No matter the day, no matter what happened, he would always make me laugh whether I had the best day or a terrible day,” she said.
“I think we just really grew together. What’s really helped is he became my best friend and that, as a foundation, really helped us.”
A sauce-y proposal
Williams said she was anticipating a marriage proposal from her longtime beau after he learned that he had been accepted into medical school.
As Christmas rolled around in 2017, she prepared for their annual holiday dinner date in Oklahoma City with extra special care. They left Stillwater headed to Hefner Grill, one of their favorite restaurants, and she was excited.
“Basically, I’m just waiting with complete anticipation,” Williams said. “I was thinking maybe this is it.”
Dinner came and went without a proposal so Williams said she was sulking all the way back to school but trying not to show it.
To her surprise, Hart pulled off the highway to a fast food Mexican restaurant and proceeded to order tacos. When he asked her to get the taco sauce out of the bag for him, she was nonplussed.
An engagement ring was wrapped around the taco sauce that she pulled out of the fast food bag.
“My response was did you just propose to me in the Taco Bell drive-thru?” Williams said, laughing.
After she said “yes,” Hart took her back to her sorority house where their family and friends were gathered to help them celebrate the occasion with strawberries and Champagne. Hart said he got his proposal idea from the father of one of his good friends. He said Williams’ sorority sisters tried to talk him out of doing it that way, but he decided it definitely would be a surprising way to propose to his love. “She was definitely surprised,” Hart said. Fortenberry, Williams’ mom, described Hart as a “gentleman.” She said he had invited them to dinner and had asked her and her husband, Alan Fortenberry, for their daughter’s hand in marriage.
She said she was touched with his answer when she asked him if he thought getting married right after college was too soon.
“He replied he was ready to marry her and that he can never have enough time with Jordan. That touched my heart, and of course, I had tears flowing with joy that our daughter was loved so much,” Fortenberry said.
“They are a perfect fit for each other, and we look forward watching them grow as husband and wife.”
Getting married? Tell us your love story to be considered for a future edition of the ongoing series “With This Ring.” Send your name, city, wedding date and other pertinent information to Carla Hinton, c/o The Oklahoman, PO Box 25125, Oklahoma City, OK 73125 or email chinton@oklahoman.com.