“I’m the tall guy with the highlighter yellow hat,” Dan tells Lauren. On a summer Thursday in Cleveland, Lauren attempts to find her future husband in a sea of people. After a couple of months of trying to connect in person, both had been wondering if that fateful first date would ever occur.
Dan, a medical professional in his early 30s was preparing to start a new job in north central Ohio. The summer prior while living at home, his mother spotted a CatholicMatch ad in the church bulletin and encouraged him to sign up. Soon after making a profile, Dan matched with Lauren—at a high 90 percent matching component!
“I thought it was either a glitch or it was very legit,” Dan remembers thinking.
Lauren recalls thinking similarly when she saw their matching percentage. “No one else was even close, so I had to see who this was!”
After the first few message exchanges go well, Dan attempts several times to ask Lauren out.
Lauren, early 30s, was in graduate studies to become a nurse practitioner. She “blew off” Dan the first time he asked her out to study for an exam. Thinking that was a legitimate enough reason, he tried again to ask her out, but she again turned him down for a prior commitment.
“I might have to ask him out or he’s going to think I’m blowing him off,” Lauren remembers thinking in her head. But once she asked Dan out, he turned her down because it happened to be his brother’s birthday, June 5th—a date which bizarrely enough ended up having great significance later on.
Finally, after about two months of attempts to connect in person, Dan texts Lauren on a Thursday morning to see if she happens to be free. “It was finally a day that I had absolutely nothing,” Lauren recalls.
They soon make a plan to meet in Cleveland at an event called Edgewater Live. After driving an hour and wading through a sea of people, Dan finally finds Lauren. He is delighted not only to meet her in person, but also to see a vast number of food trucks at the event!
After sampling the local fare, the two walked away from the crowd to sit on the beaches of Lake Erie. They watched the sunset and enjoyed easy conversation together. But the peace was soon disrupted, when a raccoon emerged from the rocks and stole Lauren’s last remaining shrimp taco! “We left in peace (and also without rabies), knowing there would be a second date.”
Fireworks and a mixtape make it official.
The second date took place in Dan’s neck of the woods on the 4th of July. Lauren’s family thought it was a bit odd that she was leaving the family 4th of July party to drive over an hour to have a second date with the “internet guy”, but she assured them by saying she met him on a Catholic website.
When Lauren arrived at Dan’s best friend’s house, she expected a larger crowd of friends. Come to find out it was an intimate double date with just his best friend and wife! After Dan talked her into lighting her first-ever firework, Lauren knew that only someone this special could convince her to do something so crazy.
A couple of weeks later, they made things official when Dan asked Lauren to be his girlfriend. After spending the day at an Indian’s baseball game, a food fest, and a walk on the beach, Dan ended the night by giving Lauren a mix CD he had made, complete with Justin Timberlake’s “Would You Be My Girlfriend?”
It soon became clear to both Dan and Lauren that this relationship was leading to marriage. One night after leaving an Indian’s game, they passed a street salesman who was selling roses. Calling after Dan as they walked by he said, “Buy one for your lady. Don’t ya love her?” Although he didn’t buy a rose, the answer was pretty obvious. Dan told Lauren later that night that the rose guy stole his thunder!
“He still sells roses outside the games,” Lauren says. “If we see him again, we owe him our business!”
A “May Day” proposal with a James Bond feel.
The end of summer brought a larger physical distance for Dan and Lauren. Dan moved three hours from Cleveland to begin his new job. The distance couldn't slow down their relationship, and they continued talking daily and seeing each other as often as possible. At this point, Dan knew he wanted to propose to Lauren by the spring. He decided to secretly enroll in flight school so that he could surprise her with a tarmac proposal! But when March 2020 came around, Covid shut down the flight school and his plans were foiled.
Keeping with the airplane theme, Dan decided to plan a surprise proposal on “May Day.” He showed up at Lauren’s place and convinced her to take a break from studying. They decided to go for a walk on the beach close to where they had their first date.
As they approached the very sign where they first met each other, Dan pointed out a small box on the sign. It was a 'kaleidoscope box' that twisted around and revealed a glistening engagement ring in the center. Before Lauren knew what was happening, Dan was down on one knee asking her for forever.
“Are you serious?!”
Lauren’s initial reaction wasn’t quite what Dan expected. Though they had discussed engagement, Lauren did not think a proposal would be coming in the midst of Covid shutdowns and quarantines.
“The answer I was hoping for was ‘yes’,” chided Dan. After catching her breath, Lauren of course accepted.
Upon returning back to Lauren’s apartment, they found it cleaned and decorated with roses and champagne, complete with a framed picture of the proposal! Unbeknownst to Lauren, Dan’s brother played an accomplice to the plan. He tailed the couple, took sniper-like photos during the big moment, and then snuck into Lauren’s apartment to decorate before they returned!
As if that wasn’t remarkable enough, Dan completed the day’s surprises with both sets of their parents showing up for an engagement party! This was the first meeting of their parents, and by the end of the night they were all the best of friends.
A mask-free wedding on a significant date.
After 13 months of engagement and marriage prep, Dan and Lauren were wed in early June 2021. They had a traditional wedding Mass with “all the bells” and three priest officiants. The reception was held near the water in the beautiful June weather. The state of Ohio had lifted the mask mandate just days before the wedding, much to the couple’s relief. “How blessed are we that we got to have a normal-ish wedding,” says Lauren, after over a year of living in the thick of Covid.
And what was the exact date of their wedding? June 5th—Dan’s brother’s birthday and the same day a year prior that Lauren attempted to ask Dan out!
After a whirlwind honeymoon and settling into the norms of married life, the couple looks back with joy on the workings of God’s plan in their relationship. Dan admits that just weeks before meeting Lauren, he remembers praying a prayer of surrender to God’s will for his life. Lauren shares that she too had a similar moment of prayer not long before she matched with Dan. Their prayer life—both together as a couple and individually—has grown deeper and stronger as a result of their relationship.
And to think that this happy ending might have been missed if they had not held out for that first date!
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