POCATELLO, Idaho- The end of April marked a new beginning for men's basketball Austin Smellie as he tied the knot, quarantine style.
 
Smellie met his wife, Madi, on campus at Idaho State on April 22, 2019. On April 23, the two would go on their first date. On April 24, 2020, the two would be wed.

"We were taking classes in the same building and we ran into each other and got to know each other that way," Smellie said.
 
After nine months together, Smellie popped the question with plans to be wed on May 8 in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple. Their plans began to change the beginning of April as the LDS churches announced they would be closing due to COVID-19 concerns. The couple saw that the possibility of a temple wedding would be slim to none and decided to move the wedding up closer to the anniversary of their first date.  
 
The initial thought of ditching their original wedding plans was tough to process.
 
"Originally it was a little bit difficult," Smellie explained. "Especially for Madi. I mean it was hard on both of us but being a woman you have that idea of a dream wedding your whole life so that was hard on her to tell you the truth. She was a little disappointed because she wanted to be able to have that big special day with all her friends and everyone."
 
Those feelings of disappointment soon began to fade.
 
"Once we started to plan the new wedding I think both started to get kind of excited about it," Smellie said.
 
They had a small, yet intimate and beautiful wedding on April 24 at a family friend's house in Wellsville, Utah.
 
"The wedding was great," Smellie said. "It was kind of fun to be able to have it with just our family. It was special."
 
To make it even more special, Smellie's father officiated the wedding.

However, the two still hope to have a big wedding reception luncheon in August with their friends and family.

"We're going to be able to celebrate twice which will be fun," Smellie continued. "We're really looking forward to that."
 
Smellie sees only benefits when he considers what life will be like as a married student-athlete.
 
"Honestly it's going to be awesome," Smellie said. "We dated all of this last basketball season. We didn't live together or anything so I felt like we weren't seeing each other maybe as much as we would've liked to last semester. I think being married will make it a lot easier and we will actually be able to see each other more. For me personally, it will be nice to have a wife that I get to see whenever I get stressed and be able to talk to her about anything. There is only going to be benefits."
 
Madi is from Idaho Falls and was just accepted into the Radiographic Science program at Idaho State. Her first two years at ISU she was a member of the cheerleading squad. Now, she is a dedicated Bengal and Austin Smellie fan, making it out to every home game and even traveling to away games.