New college grad, Sarah, was spending most of her time looking for work when her mother suggested, without homework taking up her free time, she could really start dating.
She suggested giving CatholicMatch a try, just to take a look around. “The only issue I ever had with the notion of online dating was how true or false someone can be,” Sarah says. She doubted the “realness” of online profiles because what someone writes about themselves can be totally different than what they are in real life. But her mother’s suggestion stuck, so, she created her profile in 2015. She would end up being an on and off member there for three years.
Will, meanwhile, was getting frustrated with the more traditional meeting-people-through-people avenue.
The blind dates and setups by friends were leading nowhere, and Will began to itch to take the reins on romance. In 2017, he attended the Mid Atlantic Congress, where one of the vendors presented was CatholicMatch. Online dating seemed like a disconnected way to meet people, but the traditional route hadn’t been working. Why not give it a go? He also would end up being an on and off again member.
It wasn’t until 2018 that they were both on the site at the same time long and able to bump into each other’s profiles. Will sent Sarah a message just before New Year’s Eve. The then-seasoned CatholicMatchers then chatted for a while on the site.
“It was her immediate and constant active responses to my messages (that attracted me),” Will remembers. The quick responses simply made him feel important, and the conversation felt organic and positive. Comfortable, even. They also discovered that they had both attended the same parish in years past!
Sarah was recently out of a previous relationship, and Will was the first person to share many of her interests and feelings of Catholicism. After a lot of messaging, they switched to phone calls, and then, Sarah knew she wanted to meet him.
Just weeks after that first message, they met each other in person.
They met at Red Robin, right across the street from a movie theater they planned to frequent next. Will asked Sarah about her Bowie t-shirt, and Sarah took in the long dreadlocks Will rocked. Both made quite the first impression! Their conversation was easy and fun and didn’t stop during the movie. They quietly whispered to each other the whole film and probably annoyed the other patrons! They parted ways but not as an official couple . . . yet.
“She had this weird thing to get to know the person first before claiming she would date them!” Will laughs. They spent their time going to movies and merely hanging out to get to know each other better.
Sarah was cautious for a reason. She was recently out of a different CatholicMatch relationship and didn’t know how fast to get back into the dating scene. With this, alongside their slight age gap, she didn’t want to move too quickly with Will. But a few months in, she felt comfortable in their relationship, and finally agreed to be Will’s official girlfriend. They met each other’s families, traveling from Maryland to Texas! Along the way, Sarah got demoted from driving because she accidentally damaged the side mirror on Will’s car.
Endearing clumsiness seemed to be her theme.
In June of 2019, Will’s youngest brother got married, and Sarah went as Will’s date. Unfortunately, at one point, Sarah knocked into a billiard table and bruised herself badly. Despite the injury, Sarah enjoyed hanging out with Will’s big family. “The whole family prayed together before bed,” Sarah remembers. Being from a smaller family, she loved seeing the dynamics of so many loving people.
Fast forward to March of 2020, when Sarah and Will got engaged at a beautiful park.
They were able to attend (in costume!) a film convention before Covid19 hit. Their wedding plans are still going well: they’re excited about the Renaissance theme of their wedding, which blends their passions of history and art.
“Sarah is single-handedly the best friend I’ve ever had, the kind of person that I’d spend the rest of my life being happy together with,” Will says simply.
Now that they’ve been together for a while, Sarah says that she loves Will’s personality, independence, and deep faith, which will carry them forward into their marriage.
They plan to wed on May 1st, 2021.
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