Christina had a few bad experiences with conventional online dating apps. But luckily for her, mother knows best!
Her mom, upon hearing about her luckless dating, told Christina to try CatholicMatch.
“(I) wasn't too keen on the idea the first time my mother recommended it!” Christina, then 20, recalls. Her mother didn’t give up, though, and after some time, Christina figured she would give it a try. “I’m so grateful I did!”
Matt, 24, was a long-time CatholicMatcher at five years of using the site.
Originally, he wasn’t keen on online dating, though. "It kinda seemed like something for older people who were running out of options," he said. But he changed his mind very quickly when he was at a school of engineers & pilots. They were naturally predominantly men, and very few eligible ladies were around!
A couple of weeks after Christina joined, she “liked” Matt’s profile. Then he messaged her, and they chatted for a month. They decided to meet in person halfway between their locations in the summer of 2021. Christina lived in Jacksonville Florida, and Matt, a short distance away in Tallahassee. They met in Live Oak on a quiet Sunday.
“Even though every shop in the little town was closed, we managed to spend 11 & 1/2 hours together!” Christina says. Talk about an instant connection! Their date was so long, several members of Christina’s family called her to make sure she was okay. The two of them walked around the small downtown to the only open business; a little art gallery that was doing ten-minute portrait sketches to patrons. So they got their portrait drawn together, and continued their date walking the local parks.
One week later, Christina brought Matt to meet her entire immediate family to get their approval before she and Matt made things official.
She got the thumbs-up, and their relationship began! They got to see each other relatively regularly because the distance was a bit less than three hours of driving. Christina was working in the insurance business, and Matt was finishing his engineering degree with an emphasis on airplanes. (He now works in mechanics.)
Fast forward thirteen months to June 8th, 2022...
After a Mass and breakfast date, Christina and Matt took a trip to Cape Canaveral to meet Matt’s brother and watch a rocket launch. They set up lawn chairs at the site. 90 seconds until liftoff, Trent (in on Matt’s plan, of course) suggested taking pictures of the couple together in front of the launch.
Matt swiftly swiped the sun hat she was wearing off her head and threw it and her phone on the chair. (She thought it was rather odd, but didn’t fetch anything so not to miss the rocket!)
As the rocket launched, Matt got Christina’s attention by saying “Well, the rocket's going up, so I’m going down!” She whipped around to see Matt on one knee with a ring box.
Of course, she cried “yes!”
They married on February 2nd, 2023!
Their favorite part was choreographing and doing their first dance at the reception, which they’d worked on for three months. They now live in Jacksonville together.
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