Richard knew the way to Julianna’s heart was through music.
On June 13, 2018—their 27th date—he sat down at the piano and began singing a song that he had composed. The lyrics were a marriage proposal.
Richard and Julianna, both in the early 40s, from Kentucky, and never married, joined CatholicMatch because they were looking for a spouse with a similar worldview.
Julianna looked online for 11 years.
Julianna converted to Catholicism in 2006 and during that time, she joined CatholicMatch. “I heard about CatholicMatch on EWTN radio, and I was intrigued with the idea of getting to know others who were interested in the Catholic faith," she explains.
She was on CatholicMatch on-and-off for 11 years before finding Richard. Being online that long looking for a spouse was sometimes frustrating—especially when she didn’t receive replies to the messages she sent—but she didn’t give up hope.
“I know a number of people who met their marriage partner online, so I knew it was possible. After all, it only takes one!" she laughs.
Julianna almost missed out on Richard. “I had let my account go inactive when Richard first messaged me, but I eventually rejoined. I am glad I did!"
When Richard became more serious about his faith, he joined CatholicMatch.
Richard had tried to meet people through ordinary daily life and via other online dating sites, but without success.
“One of the challenges experienced on other sites was that some of the people with whom I interacted. While they were interesting and possessed nice qualities, they appeared ambivalent about finding someone to marry, versus someone to chat with online,” he shares.
As Richard became more serious about his Catholic faith, he decided to join CatholicMatch in March of 2017. Shortly after, he sent Julianna a message introducing himself.
"Julianna's background as a musician and the synopsis of her personality, which was similar to mine, caught my attention,” he says.
When Julianna received Richard’s message, she responded with a smiley face. “I could tell that he was a very intelligent person who valued his faith, and he played piano to boot! As a fellow musician, that was something that interested me.”
A few weeks later she re-joined Catholicmatch and began an online conversation with Richard, which eventually transferred to telephone.
“As I got to know him further, I saw that he was a very genuine and kind person,” she recalls. “In addition to our mutual love of music, our faith is important to both of us. We also both appreciate education and intellect, the importance of family, traveling, and last but not least, going out to eat!"
Talk about pressure on a first date...
Their first date was on October 22, 2017, and one might say that it was a high-pressure date! They had plans to meet at a public musical event where Julianna was one of the featured artists.
“I am a composer, and the choir at a local church was performing several pieces that I had written at a service with myself conducting,” she explains. “Richard agreed to come to the service, and he introduced himself to me before it began.”
Not only did he meet Julianna, he met most of her family on that first date because they also came to the concert. He even got quizzed and stumped by her eight-year-old nephew.
“He challenged Richard to a math problem, computing the square root of 65,536. Richard, being a math kind of fellow, doesn't want me to mention that he didn't know it was 256!” she shares.
Richard adds, “After meeting in person, we found that we got along well, and we quickly became an item, as they say.”
The big question: who would move if we get married?
As their relationship became serious, the question became, “Who would move if they got married?” They lived in two different cities 90 minutes apart.
“In the beginning, I had a significant amount of anxiety about this,” she shares. “But as we continued to get to know each other—and when Richard said he would support my dream of going back to school to obtain a doctoral degree in music—those fears gradually abated. It was still a leap of faith, but I trusted that God wanted Richard and me to be together."
Ending on a high note...
As mentioned earlier in the story, Richard proposed on June 13th, 2018, with a song he had written. Julianna immediately accepted the proposal, but later composed another verse of the song to reply.
Not surprisingly, music comprised a prominent place in the couple's wedding. On Saturday, December 29th, 2018, at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in LaGrange, Kentucky, they were married during the 5 p.m. vigil Mass. She and Richard composed almost all of the music for the Mass, and Julianna's choir sang for the wedding.
The wedding favors given out at the reception were CD's featuring music composed and performed by the couple.
Things are going well for Richard and Julianna. They say in addition to sharing their musical interests and love of their faith, there’s nothing like spending an evening together as a married couple watching Downton Abbey with their cat Ripley sitting on one of their laps.
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