They Went on Three Dates in One Day!

Jordan of Chattanooga, Tennessee, tried using popular secular dating apps such as Tinder and Bumble half-seriously, only occasionally “swiping” when he matched with someone. But he eventually realized that his Catholic faith was more important than anything else, and that’s what he wanted to base his marriage on.

So he joined CatholicMatch in March 2022, and just two months later, he met Amanda. 

For her part, Amanda of Atlanta, Georgia, had also used many secular dating apps to cast a wide net. She had a Hinge account specifically because it allowed her to filter profiles by “Catholic” as opposed to just “Christian.” But finding a guy who was also serious about the faith was also a big deal to her. Seeing that CatholicMatch was more reliable on this front, Amanda joined the app in the Summer of 2020, and after using it on and off for almost two years, she met Jordan.

She reached out first, and he asked her out after chatting for just a day.

In May 2022, Amanda saw Jordan’s profile and took the unusual step of contacting him first. “Hi,” her simple first message read. “She was the first woman, period, who had reached out to me on a dating site. I immediately thought, ‘Oh, this is weird,’” Jordan recalled. He messaged her back, and they hit it off, chatting throughout the day. 

One of their memorable conversations was when Amanda mentioned that she was watching the reality show Survivor with her sister. At the time, Jordan was a reporter at a CBS-affiliated network, so he told her Survivor was playing at the station, sparking further conversation about the show and his job. After such great discussions, Jordan asked her what she was doing that weekend, and she agreed to meet for their first date. 

“I appreciated that because it wasn’t days and days of beating around the bush,” Amanda recalled. And while she was a bit nervous about the date, the distance between them reassured her. “I thought, ‘Well, he’s close enough that we could see each other over the weekends but far enough away that if it went badly, I wasn’t worried about running into him at the grocery store,’” Amanda said.

They went on three dates in one day!

The pair planned to meet for their first date on May 22 at the Catholic-owned Lazy Labrador Coffee House in Kennesaw, Georgia, about 25 minutes from Atlanta and an hour-and-a-half from Chattanooga. That morning, Amanda let Jordan know she might be late because she had just gotten out of confession. Funny enough, Jordan had also gone to confession that morning. It turned out they had also both prayed for a good first date and that this would be the last first date they’d ever have to go on. 

The pair met at the Lazy Labrador, had coffee, and chatted about life there for 3-4 hours! Their conversations flowed naturally. They enjoyed bouncing academia off each other, with Jordan having an English and literature background as a journalist and Amanda having a science background as a physics and chemistry teacher. The pair also talked a lot about sports, mainly their favorite sport, baseball. 

For most people, the first date would’ve ended there, but since it was going so well and they were having such great discussions, they weren’t ready for the day to end yet. So, the pair headed to Orpheus Brewing in Atlanta for basically their second date. They then had dinner at the Vortex Bar and Grill in the Little Five Points neighborhood of Atlanta for their third date.

Finally, the long but fun day came to a close.

They visited each other every weekend.

Going forward, they’d spend every weekend together, rotating who made the long drive to the other’s city. They began only seeing each other on Saturday or Sunday but eventually spent the entire weekend together. The pair stayed at each other’s apartments, making sure their roommates were home and that they slept in different rooms.

The couple would often enjoy taking long walks together, sitting and chatting at coffee shops, and attending Mass at each other’s parishes, never missing a Sunday Mass together. “Mass is always special; it’s always a blessing, but all of a sudden, you have this person with you who’s just as dedicated to it as you are. And when you have that for the first time in your life, and you recognize it, it’s remarkable,” Jordan said. 

He turned down a great career opportunity for their relationship.

Fast forward to August 2022, and the couple is talking almost daily and still seeing one another every weekend. They had said they loved each other after dating for only a few months. At this point, it was a matter of when not if there would be a proposal. One day, Jordan was called into his news director’s office and offered a promotion to weekend news anchor.

As a TV reporter, he was making very little money, so little that he had started donating plasma for extra cash. The promotion could have gone a long way financially. The catch was he’d have to work Friday through Monday and couldn’t spend weekends with Amanda anymore. After telling his boss he needed time to think about it, he called Amanda to tell her about the offer and that he wouldn’t accept it.

“At that point, it was so obvious what she meant to me. I wasn’t going to sacrifice the time I had with Amanda, so the next day, I turned down the position. I told my boss I can’t get in the way of this relationship,” Jordan recounted. 

He decided to make a spontaneous proposal while walking across a bridge.

A few months later, while planning his proposal, Jordan asked for Amanda’s parents' blessings in advance, which they gave him. Her father even surprised Jordan by hugging him in response. He then purchased an engagement ring with the money he received donating plasma. Jordan had coordinated his original proposal plan with Amanda’s friends in Georgia, who would host an Advent party on the first Sunday of Advent as a front for the marriage proposal. This way, all her friends would be over, and they could kick off Advent as an engaged couple. 

But on November 17th in Chattanooga, after having dinner, the pair was walking across the iconic Walnut Street Bridge when Jordan remembered something crucial. “She had said, ‘I don’t want to be proposed to on a Sunday because I don’t want you to have to leave that same night.’ And here I am thinking, ‘Oh, great, well, now I have to jettison this entire proposal,’” he recounted. 

He already had the ring and a proposal aid ready, so he decided on a spontaneous proposal that night. The couple arrived back at his apartment, and after Amanda had stepped out, Jordan grabbed the ring and his proposal aid: a customized Los Angeles Dodgers jersey, her favorite baseball team, with his last name on the back and the number “22” since that would be the year they met and be engaged. 

He shouted, “Hey honey, I got a gift for you!” “Why?!” Amanda replied, knowing that he wasn’t making much money, that he was saving up for a ring, and that Christmas was coming up. When she got out, he pulled out the jersey and gave it to her. When she saw his last name on the back, Jordan prayed the lightbulb would go off, but it went over her head. This was because her roommate had recently gotten engaged and sent her a wedding program. For logistical reasons, she knew Amanda would likely be married before her, so she wrote “Amanda Simal” on the wedding program. “People had been joking with me about the last name thing, so seeing it on the jersey didn’t really phase me,” Amanda recalled. 

The couple hugged, and Jordan pulled out the ring and said, “The jersey would look good with this, don’t you think?” “At that point, I figured it out,” Amanda said. After asking her to marry him, she repeatedly nodded, “Yes.” They called Amanda’s parents to share the news first, and her mom asked if her daughter had actually said the word “Yes.” So, Jordan asked her again while they were on the phone, and she finally verbally said, “Yes.”

They decided they’d live in Georgia, and Jordan would leave reporting.

In the months leading up to the wedding, the couple decided they’d begin their married life in Atlanta since Amanda was a teacher at a Catholic high school there. They also decided to get married there since it would be easier for family and friends from out of state to travel to Atlanta than Chattanooga. Jordan officially moved to Atlanta in the months leading up to the wedding. 

Jordan left his job and gave up reporting altogether to pursue a career that would be more stable and conducive to family life. He struggled with finding a new job, which was frustrating since he had previously been blessed enough to get each job he applied for almost instantly. Every day he didn’t have a job was also a day closer to the wedding, and he did not want to get married without a job. The couple constantly prayed that he would find a job. Finally, on St. Valentine’s Day, 2023, he landed a job as a communications specialist at a university in Morrow, Georgia.

They were married on a rainy but beautiful day.

The wedding day finally arrived on July 21st, and the stress of wedding planning disappeared as Jordan and Amanda entered into the sacrament of matrimony at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Atlanta. Fr. Juan Pablo Durán from Holy Spirit was the main celebrant of the Mass. Fr. Valentin Lurochkin came in from Jordan’s parish, the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga to concelebrate. Amanda’s college friend, Fr. Nick Le, a newly ordained priest at the time, also concelebrated. Deacon Gaspar DeGaetano from the Basilica and another friend of Amanda’s from college, then-Deacon David DesPres, served as deacons. Two of Amanda’s students even served as the altar servers! 

Many of their friends commented that the wedding Mass was one of the most beautiful Masses they had ever attended. The couple agreed: “I felt it too. I was trying to take it from a spectator's point of view. I’m sitting there thinking, ‘This is probably the most beautiful Mass I’ve ever been to. Even if it wasn’t my wedding right now, I still would feel like this is easily top three,’” Jordan recalled.

Then came the reception, which was half indoor and half outdoor at 716 West, formerly the historic Mary Gay House, in Decatur, Georgia. The weather forecast kept changing between sunny and rainy, so there was no way to tell what the weather would be like that day. As a precaution, the couple ordered some tents in the back. When they first arrived and took pictures, it was sunny, but just as they wrapped up the photo taking, it began to monsoon! 

“It was the worst storm of the summer,” Amanda recalled. “It was unbelievable! There was rain coming sideways. We’ve got guests caught outside,” Jordan recounted. But the rain didn’t ruin the day; it became part of the celebration. Guests chose to dance in the rain. It was almost like if you weren’t in the rain, you weren’t living. Overall, they both enjoyed the wedding day despite the weather.

Two days later, the newlyweds began their honeymoon, a cross-country road trip, with Sunday morning Mass at the Basilica in Chattanooga. Seconds before Mass was scheduled to start, Fr. David Carter, the pastor of the Basilica who couldn’t make it to their wedding, ran to their pew and fervently congratulated them before running up to the altar to start the Mass. Some of their friends in attendance, who had been wedding guests two days earlier, were also pleasantly surprised to see them there.

They’ve prayerfully adjusted to married life.

The couple has transitioned to married life smoothly in Georgia. They moved into their first house in February and welcomed their first child in April. They credit their easy adjustments to married life to their constant prayer and going wherever God leads them, which has done wonders for their marriage. “He hasn’t let us down, and I know He’s not going to if we keep doing that,” Jordan said.

Advice for CatholicMatch users:

Jordan advises CatholicMatch users to be patient while using the app and not give up on it, even if meeting someone takes longer than expected. He reminds users to be honest with others about who you are when making a profile and meeting people. He also says it’s important to set boundaries. For instance, he previously talked to a girl in Louisiana, but that was too far for him. Finally, he emphasizes that you shouldn’t just use the app; you should pray and use the app if you’re really committed to finding a spouse. “Pray on it, be patient, and know that God’s got you,” he said.

Amanda has similar advice for CatholicMatch users about patience. “When I was feeling up to it, I would look at the app, reach out to people, and talk to people who reached out to me. And when I was exhausted from it, I would take a break, then come back,” she recalled. She also recommends giving people a chance, emphasizing that you don’t have to marry them but have a couple of conversations with other users because you never know where these conversations will go and what they might lead to. 

She echoed Jordan’s sentiments on keeping up with your prayer life and added that doing God’s will in your non-dating life is also important. “When you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, things click into place. So, you need to work on figuring out what you’re supposed to be doing so that you can do that. And then give God avenues and opportunities for Him to work,” she said.