She Helped Him Make His Online Dating Profile

For some people, CatholicMatch helps them meet their future husband or wife. Not Shelyse and Brandan. They had already met and were friends.

But CatholicMatch transformed their friendship into something more.

Before they eventually matched online, they had already met in real life.

Shelyse first crossed paths with Brandan at a Steubenville conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He befriended her and others who had joined her from Prince Edward Island, where she lived. That meeting led to frequent visits to the island, during which Brandan and Shelyse, who are both in their mid-20s, mingled among a group of mutual friends.

Then, around April or May 2017, Brandan moved to Prince Edward Island.

That’s when things started to take off, even though initially they were still just friends. They started spending more time together with their other friends. At one point Brandan asked Shelyse to take his CatholicMatch interview, presumably for her objective feedback. He had just one question publicly posted: How do you like your steak? Shelyse answered “medium rare.” So, it turns, does Brandan. He liked her answer.

Then Brandan needed another favor. “He also asked me to take some photos for his profile, which I thought was strange,” Shelyse said.

“She was getting suspicious,” Brandan said.

“It turns out that these were just tactics to spend time with and get to know me,” Shelyse added.

They were "just friends" for a while, until Shelyse saw his CatholicMatch profile.

Shelyse says one of their most memorable times together was while they were still, at least officially, friends.

“We were at a beautiful beach with friends, and at one point he read the original Little Mermaid story to me and a friend on the beach while listening to the surf. He has a wonderful reading voice, and I love to be read to. On top of that, 'The Little Mermaid' is my favorite fairytale story! Although another friend was there, it felt like he was reading just to me, and I knew at that time that I really liked him,” Shelyse said.

In June, they were matched online. “On a whim, I decided to click ‘yes’ to our match. Nothing happened, so I wasn’t sure what to make of that,” Shelyse said.

A week or two passed and still nothing. Shelyse thought Brandan might like her but she wasn’t sure. She was sure she didn’t want “another broken heart.” So she prayed for clarity. Within five minutes of her prayer, she checked CatholicMatch: Brandan had responded with a ‘yes.’

“Over time (a few months) and with much prayer and thought, I realized that my heart had totally opened up to him and I became very attracted to him as more than a friend. I’m not sure if this would have happened without CatholicMatch or not, but this was the avenue that God chose,” Shelyse said.

Their first date revealed just how much they had in common.

They agreed to meet for coffee at a Vietnamese restaurant where they also shared one of their favorite foods, pho. The circumstances of the date were a bit discombobulated. Shelyse had just lost a part-time job unexpectedly, so their meeting time was moved up. When Brandan checked in to let her know he was on his way, the call came in while Shelyse was shooting video for another job. On the way he paused to buy cologne and “took a little long” debating over which ones to get.

“When we met outside her office, I remember comforting her about the loss of the other job and I remember listening; she was someone I could get used to listening to and comforting.  We had Vietnamese noodles and coffee and a good long chat about a lot of things that first date. It turned out we had a lot in common,” Brandan said.

“Once we started dating and getting to know each other more, I pretty much knew right away. It wasn’t anything in particular, but God revealed to me so many things that I didn’t know about Brandan before that just made sense for us as a couple. We have more in common than I ever knew, but also a lot of complementarity,” Shelyse said.

Not only did they have things in common, but they were also complimentary. God had a perfect plan.

Brandan also came to see how they complementary. He said he came to realize that together they could “perfect our virtues, correct our faults, and love and see God more fully.”

“That we would watch sci-fi, read stories, laugh and joke, and cook and clean together was also a pretty good indicator that our budding romance was on its way to blooming,” Brandan added.

Six months in, she knew she wanted to get married. About one year after Brandan had moved to Prince Edward Island, they got engaged, on Easter Sunday, April 1, 2018. “We were engaged under a covered bridge, one of Brandan’s favorite things in the world. I always thought they were pretty romantic too,” Shelyse said.

They are set to be married this year, in October, which Shelyse said is their favorite month.