“God knows I am not the most patient person,” Rebecca, 29, says of her CatholicMatch experience. A convert to Catholicism, she knew she wanted to marry within her faith.
“There was no better place to look than Catholic Match,” she figured.
She had been a member for about a month when she reached out to Ryan, then 34. He had been a member for about three years and was getting ready to delete his profile. (How many times have you heard that before?!)
Seeing Rebecca’s message, he decided to respond–what was the worst that could happen? While they chatted through May of 2021, they discovered their mutual love for Marvel movies, The Office, and exploring new foods–although Rebecca was a die-hard M&M fan over everything else. They began talking on the phone or on video chat every week.
They went on their first in-person date on July 30th of 2021. Ryan, 34, came up to D.C., where Rebecca had agreed to meet him. (She is from Bethesda, Maryland.)
Mass was going to be their first date.
Though they had planned to first attend Mass together, Rebecca’s local Basilica had a major power outage and church was canceled! They tried a couple of other churches, which were all experiencing the same problem. Ryan had the bright idea to at least walk the Rosary garden at the nearby Franciscan Friars, where they had the delightful opportunity to share more of their faith with each other. Then, they tried axe-throwing!
“Ryan survived my driving in D.C. Jesus must have taken the wheel!” Rebecca laughs. For their second date, Rebecca traveled to Virginia Beach over Labor Day weekend, where she met Ryan’s family. Ryan also asked her to be his official girlfriend–to seal the deal, he played on her love of collecting M&M merchandise. He gave her a candy dispenser for her collection!
Despite opposite work schedules and a 3.5 hour distance, they continued to date as much as they could that fall. Rebecca’s job as a gymnastics coach had an opposite work schedule to Ryan’s work as a youth minister. They worked hard to practice patience and perseverance, talking on the phone daily and scheduling monthly in-person dates.
Then, things got serious!
“We both knew that we loved each other and were committed to growing in our relationship,” Rebecca says, and they began to talk about marriage that Thanksgiving.
On Christmas Eve of 2021, Ryan and Rebecca were attending his extended family Christmas party. During the different family photos in front of the Christmas tree, Ryan’s best friend handed her a strange gift. It was a champagne bottle filled to the brim with custom M&Ms. Each one said “Will you marry me, Rebecca?”
“I looked up and saw everyone with their phones out. Ryan started reaching into his jacket, and it suddenly was clicking that he was going to propose!” she recalls.
Ryan pulled out the ring and got down on one knee, of course, she said yes! They set their wedding date for the one-year mark exactly from when they met.
"When you know, you really know!"
“It may seem fast for some, but when you know, you know!” Rebecca says. “We are just so thankful to have found each other!”
