They Lived Down The Street From Each Other!
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Initially skeptical of meeting someone online, Elizabeth, joined CatholicMatch in 2013. Six years later, at age 27, she stumbled across Aaron’s profile on his birthday, November 6th of 2019. She was impressed by his priorities listed in his profile: faith in God, his degree from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, and of course he was pretty handsome too. Much like she did, he also loved the Latin Mass.
She was so impressed by his profile that she went out on a limb and sent him a message saying happy birthday.
Aaron, turning 25 that year, received it whilst sitting with his brother at a Cheesecake Factory. (He’d only been on CatholicMatch for three weeks!) Excited by Elizabeth’s message, he did his best to type out a discreet response while his sibling watched him across the table! (Any bets the brother was fooled?) Aaron liked Elizabeth's joyful and virtuous personality which shone in her profile.
A few CatholicMatch messages later, they traded phone numbers.
Then they discovered some mutual connections.
“We found out how odd it was that we had never met in person!” they remember. They had lived just down the street from each other in Steubenville, Ohio. They had several mutual friends, to boot. They went to the same church, just at different times. And to top it all off, they had shared the same favorite study spot on the Franciscan university campus while in college! Elizabeth, after getting her philosophy degree in Virginia, had studied nursing at a hospital in Steubenville and studied on campus even though she didn’t technically attend. Aaron had attended Franciscan University for a double major in history and marketing and later moved on to work in the IT field as an administrator. So, they had both lived and studied on the Steubenville campus but had never crossed paths before!
The hustle and bustle of the holidays delayed their weekend availability for the rest of the year.
They set up their first date on January 4th of 2020, almost exactly two months after meeting online. Aaron picked Elizabeth up from her parents’ house, and they spent the day together in Downtown Willoughby. First came a coffee shop, which led to lunch, and then on they continued to Mass and Confession, which was Aaron’s habit on every first Saturday of a new month. They still didn’t want to part, so they found another coffee shop! The two discovered a shared faith, hopes for the future, and similar dreams of marriage and family. Of course, this wonderful first date led to a second, and then a third, and very soon they found themselves to be an exclusive dating couple.
Exactly one year after they’d met online, on November 6th of 2020, Elizabeth drove to celebrate Aaron’s birthday with his family. He wanted to go to Confession before his birthday dinner and had some tricky convincing to do to get Elizabeth to come inside the church with him instead of waiting in the car. (He had some other plans up his sleeve, as you may have guessed.)
The two prayed together in the back of the church, which happened to be the same church of their first date. It was there that Aaron got down on one knee and proposed with his late grandmother’s ring. To Elizabeth’s surprise, when they went home to his family, it turned out he’d planned a surprise engagement party with her family and friends invited too--not a birthday party after all.
Their wedding was on August 7th of 2021.
Elizabeth’s uncle, a priest, was able to marry them, and their Godchildren were involved in the wedding party. The couple fondly remembers presenting flowers to the Holy Family statues after the Gospel reading. Now, the newlyweds are involved with young adult groups in the Cleveland Diocese. Aaron is in the Knights of Columbus, and Elizabeth volunteers at a pro-life pregnancy center.