One Event: Two Weddings! Now-Married Couples Ryan & Tiffany And Patrick & Lexi met same event Summer 2016; Married in 2017 & 2018 respectively
Midsummer Catholic Speed Dating was on July 31, 2016 and, as usual, took up the patio of Old Chicago Grant Street in the Northglenn/Thornton area 30 minutes north of Denver, for a fun Hawaiian theme in the heat of summer. This venue is down the street from the parish where I got all my sacraments so far at Immaculate Heart of Mary parish Northglenn. Many couples who have met at these events have been married after first meeting at this particular patio so it might be a great grace so close to my home parish!
There were so many people at this event not everyone could meet everyone. However, at the end when everyone was mingling, these two couples, Ryan & Tiffany, and Patrick & Lexi, talked well past the finish of the event. They were both matches from the start!
Fast forward a year later, and Tiffany and Ryan married Sept. 2, 2017 in her home state in Virginia. Tiffany and Ryan were similar in situations: both moved to Denver the very same month, possibly the same week. Him, from Cooperstown area, New York state. I recall Tiffany told me she was living in Washington, Virginia googling online to find a Catholic speed dating event near her. She said there were no Catholic young adults her age in her area of the state and she was in her later 20s at the time. She saw my name come up. When her job was able to send her this way as a temporary post she took it and she joined my Midsummer Catholic Speed Dating. I met Ryan when he was attending a Catholic event in Denver as a visitor as he was about to move here from Cooperstown, New York. He also said similarly there were almost no young Catholic adults from where he was from. He was friends with another long-time speed dater who wanted him to meet me and hear about what I run.
When he made it here it was just the week or two before and so both Tiffany & Ryan landed in Denver about the same time and were first-timers to the event! Congrats and they are on Baby 1 or 2 now. I can’t recall! Exciting!
I had known Patrick & Lexi, pictured below, for a little bit longer before they both also decided to be first time eventgoers to Midsummer Catholic Speed Dating! Patrick, I’d seen at daily Mass at Cathedral and St. Mark’s Westminster. I must have given him a few fliers for up to nine months before he caught one, one day when his friend who was also a former seminarian as he was, greeted me with a hug after Mass at Cathedral and I handed them both Catholic speed dating fliers. I had been friends with his friend for about ten years. His friend accompanied him and went also to Midsummer Catholic Speed Dating! Fast forward and Patrick & Lexi also got married, though in Summer of 2018! Congrats! Both couples are proof that God’s will IS what happens. And if you stay grounded in faith and don’t give up, His will guides you that much more.
