Wedding bells soon will be ringing for two CatholicMatch members, thanks to the persistence of their mothers.
Monica finally heeded her mom’s exhortation to join CatholicMatch, and Matt finally heeded his mom’s, and now the two 20-somethings are planning a wedding.
Both of the intervening moms had seen CatholicMatch ads on the back of their parish bulletins. Matt’s mom would make sure her son grabbed a bulletin after each Sunday Mass. Sometimes she’d even point it out.
Monica’s mom was equally persistent. She even offered to pay the membership fee so her daughter could utilize the site.
Once both parties had decided to join, they didn’t find each other immediately. In fact, Monica met Matt “by mistake.”
“I had been emailing and dating another man named Matt and thought I was responding to his email, not noticing that a different set of numbers followed his first name, asking about his bathroom renovations, when I received a response that said, ‘How did you know I was remodeling my bathroom? It’s actually going well!’ In a moment of embarrassment, I quickly responded with an apology and laughed off my oversight. We introduced ourselves via email and started the first of many lengthy emails that would transpire over the next few months.”
Monica found herself racing home after a long work day, eating a quick dinner with her parents and then jumping online to see what Matt had written her. “I spent hours every night reading his words and writing my own, and we started to peel back the layers of each other’s lives.”
After two months of emails and a few phone calls, they decided to meet. And it was crystal clear, Monica recalls, “that there was something magical between us.”
Matt proposed right before Christmas, and now the happy couple is busy planning a wedding, which for now means selecting a city, a church, a priest and a date. “He and I have family all over the country,” Monica explained, “so we are strategizing to easily include the most relatives.”
The couple just signed up for an Engaged Encounter in their archdiocese of Boston. Monica is also dress shopping.
All this, of course, is being done against the backdrop of thriving careers. Matt, a 29-year-old Long Island native, moved from Coventry, Conn., last spring to accept the offer of a lifetime, taking a job as a senior technology services engineer in the Global Desktop and Infrastructure Solutions Department and Monster.com’s Maynard, Mass., headquarters. He manages 5,000 computers in North America, South America and Asia Pacific. “I work with a great group of minds – a very dynamic group,” he said.
Monica, 26, a Denver native, develops architectural and retail blueprints for large retail and food chains. Last year she helped her then-boyfriend renovate his Connecticut home. He since accepted the Monster job, relocated and found a wonderful renter.
They’re busy but happy, Monica says. “We’re planning our wedding, setting goals together and enjoying our engagement.”
