Brittany, 26, was skeptical about trying CatholicMatch. A friend hounded her for months about joining because she'd met her husband on the site.
“I finally thought, ‘What do I have to lose?’" So, in 2016, she made a profile.
Joe, 26, also took a while to warm up to the idea of online dating. He finally gave in because his brother met his wife on CatholicMatch. He had little to lose and a lot to gain, so he decided to give it a try.
Joe admits that, at first, he was a little embarrassed about being on a dating site, but then, just a couple weeks after joining, he saw Brittany’s profile and messaged her.
Brittany wondered if Joe was hiding something because he didn't have a profile picture.
It dawned on her that maybe he wasn't handsome.
Brittany asked Joe to send her a picture. “I was surprised because I thought I already had one on the site," Joe said. When she saw Joe’s picture, Brittany realized that her assumptions were way off. “Boy, was I wrong!” she laughs.
She was happy that Joe was handsome, but there were other reasons she liked him— one was that he came from a big Catholic family. For Joe, he appreciated that they shared the same faith and values. It also didn’t hurt that Brittany talked about football and that they were both big fans of the Cleveland Browns.
The first date wasn't a huge success, but they both agreed to give it another shot.
Even with so much in common, Brittany wasn’t sure if the relationship would work because she thought they lived too far apart. They both lived in Ohio, and it was about an hour-and-a-half drive
“He persuaded me though, and we met at a restaurant in between,” she says. ‘He drove two-thirds of the way so that I'd only have to go one-third since he knew I was skeptical.”
The first date wasn’t a huge success. “I was a little shy and quiet, so Joe did a lot of the talking.” Even though the date was nothing to write home about, they both agreed to meet again.
“By the second date, I knew there was something different about this guy. He’s prayerful and devoted to the faith. He’s very close to his family and has always wanted more than anything to be a husband and a father.”
When Joe asked her to be his girl, it was the easiest yes Brittany had ever given.
When Joe asked Brittany to be his girlfriend a few weeks after their first date, it was the easiest ‘yes’ she had ever given.
The couple says that besides being mutually attracted to each other, their relationship took off after the second date because they shared the same beliefs, morals, and faith. “It truly made all the difference between other relationships,” they say.
They add, “We support each other spiritually which can be hard to find in a partner. From the beginning, we’ve attended Mass together, gone to confession together, and we are constantly praying with and for one another.”
Brittany also shares that Joe's gentle nature won her over. “He's always surprising me by his kindness. I have never been treated better, and I am so glad I never settled, and I waited for God to show me the right one—the one He had for me.”
They didn't want to do long-distance anymore. So, Brittany moved to Joe's town.
When Brittany first began talking to Joe, she thought that the hour-and-a-half drive was most likely a deal-breaker. She realized that Joe was worth any obstacle, but she still didn’t like having a long-distance relationship.
Neither of them wanted to battle the drive every week, so Brittany made the brave step of moving to Joe’s town a few months after they began dating seriously.
It was lonely for her not to have any of her family and friends in the same town. “I relied on him a lot during that transition. We visit my family almost every other weekend,” she explains.
Joe's proposal was a perfectly executed surprise.
On June 15, 2018, when Brittany got off work, she found that Joseph had left her some letters.
“They were filled with sweet words and instructions on what I was to do. They led me on a day of being pampered with a manicure, a new dress, and getting my hair and makeup done!”
Brittany thought for sure that Joe was going to propose, but then he threw her off when he told her he had to work late.
“He said that I should go to a cookout his family was having, and he'd meet me there when he got off work.”
When she arrived at the "cookout," there were only a few of Joe’s family members there, which Brittany thought was weird. “His niece said she had something on her phone for me to listen to. She played a recording. It was a recording of Joseph asking my father for my hand in marriage!”
The moment she heard her dad's voice, Brittany burst into laughter and happy tears. “I still didn't know where Joseph was until they led me to the backyard where a trail of flower petals and candles led me to a gazebo where he stood ready to ask me to marry him!”
Joe and Brittany were joined in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony on October 6, 2018, in Brittany’s hometown church, Immaculate Conception, in Botkins, Ohio.
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