• Michelle and Scott first became part of a Facebook support group for widowers in their area.
• The two struck up a quick friendship that led to romance.
• Newlyweds tell PEOPLE what it was like to see a double rainbow appear on their wedding day

Two people looking for love after heartbreak found each other. As they fell in love and married, there was a special sign from above that their union was fateful.

Scott and Michelle first met as two widowers.

“I grew up a military kid and went into construction management, so I’ve moved around a lot throughout my life. I was previously married to Lisa, my wife of 29 years” , Scott told PEOPLE. “We were in Northern Virginia, where I started working for the federal government. I have three kids and two dogs.”

“I was born and raised in Fairfax, Virginia. In 1999, I married Jonathan and we were married for about 23 years,” says Michelle. “We lived overseas for 10 of those years before moving back to the Fairfax area. I have four kids and six dogs.”

The two first connected in a Facebook group for widows in the Washington, DC/Maryland/Virginia area. After taking a closer look at Michelle’s profile, Scott realized that his sister was a mutual friend.

“He contacted me and said, ‘You don’t know me, but I noticed your mutual friends with my sister,’ and that’s kind of how the conversation started,” she says . “The interesting thing is that his sister and I never met. We went back and forth and danced together in Northern Virginia for years.

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“His son and my nephew were friends for a while as well,” Scott says. “It’s a small world in a way.”

Michelle and Scott quickly became good friends.

“We had so much in common in terms of backgrounds and future goals. It was just amazing and I think that’s what launched us pretty quickly,” she says.

“For me, it was more than that,” he adds. “It was Michelle’s sense of humor and her sense of life. And that really appealed to me, which I realized after a little while.”

Michelle helped Scott cook and ended up spending more and more time with him. He was happy to return the favor when she decided to make a DIY board for her infant grandson.

“We were working on this project together and we talked about whether we would ever get married again,” Michelle recalls. “And I said, ‘No, I think I’m happy with the way things are going.’ ”

“We laugh about it now, because it was a little less than five months before she accepted my proposal,” Scott says, emphasizing that he didn’t even know what the connection was headed at the time.

“She was telling me things she wanted to do and I didn’t want her to think I was making her look bad, but those were exactly the goals I had,” he says. “His projects really appealed to me.”

Things had started to take a romantic turn when Scott decided to jump in with a special Valentine’s Day gift.

“I actually thought about it a lot. I said, ‘I really like him, I think I’ll send him two dozen roses.’ Once the discussion was over, I ended up sending her 100 roses for Valentine’s Day,” he recalls.

“When I had 100 roses delivered to me at work, I was in shock,” adds Michelle. “I said, ‘I have to give this guy a chance. It’s a pretty cool move.’ “

Months into their relationship, Scott knew he wanted to propose and decided his job, where Michelle is surrounded by “so many good friends who are almost like family,” was the perfect place.

“I ended up in the dock at the school where she worked and her boss was in on it, as was her mother, and they all helped and set me up and orchestrated it,” said Scott.

Both men are excited, not only to find love with each other, but also to reunite their families.

“We are so grateful for the support of our two children. They were actually the ones who wanted us to get married,” Michelle said.

“They wanted to get involved and see us get married. Her daughter, Jill, is a part-time wedding planner, so she helped us out,” Michelle continues. “My daughter, Alyssa, works at a florist, so she helped out. It was just a huge family affair. The ring bearers were our grandsons and her granddaughter and my niece were the flower girls. My three boys walked me down the aisle.”

The pair thought their outdoor ceremony on Saturday, September 7 would be ruined by a rainy morning, but 10 minutes before it was set to begin, the sun came out.

“As the ceremony unfolded. The darkness faded to light and the hint of drizzle disappeared. The wind calmed. Then almost right after the ceremony the first rainbow came appeared when (photographer) Chelsea started taking pictures,” Scott said. .

“And then, as the footage continued, a second rainbow appeared. I don’t know if Michelle and I noticed it until Chelsea said something and we turned around. And then, it was right behind us. We sat and looked at it for a few minutes and it was the brightest rainbow we’ve ever seen. It was amazing and it was so big and we. could see almost everything Yeah, it was just a beautiful one. confirmation.

Michelle agrees, adding, “We really feel like God led us here and brought us together. The rainbows almost seemed like a confirmation of that.”

The two were even more surprised when Chelsea shared the video of the day on TikTok, where it went viral as people commented on the importance of the double rainbow in Michelle and Scott’s story.

“It’s hard to hope after losing someone that things will get better or that you’ll meet someone else if you want to,” Michelle says. “So it was really nice to be able to give so much hope to other widows. I didn’t expect that, but I’m really happy that it did.”

“We hope this can be something positive for everyone,” Scott says. “I definitely didn’t expect this. I was afraid to go out and meet people after so long. I was pretty set in my ways. But with his sense of humor and personality, I love spend every minute with her.”

Michelle adds: “It’s nice to share our relationship with everyone. We’ve gotten comments saying, ‘I didn’t believe in an afterlife until I saw this,’ and that’s really special to me personally.”