Daniel and Amanda both grew up about five minutes away from each other and went to the same church but never met until their senior year of high school! Daniel was very involved in their home parish and was staffing the next ACTS retreat that was taking place during the summer of 2018. His youth minister encouraged all of them to invite someone to the retreat who they've seen around the church before but have never really talked to. For Daniel, that was Amanda. He messaged her about the retreat and they got to talking more and more each day. Eventually they met up in person for dinner to get to know each other a little better (which was code for a date) and as soon as Daniel got home he said, "Mom, I'm gonna marry this girl." Sure enough, 4 years later we have a wedding!

It was August 14th, the day before the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Daniel had been working as the music coordinator at Our Lady of Wisdom for awhile now and Amanda had been teaching Catechesis classes on Sunday mornings. Because of this, Daniel and Amanda haven't been able to attend mass together as a part of the congregation, so Daniel thought it would be a really great date night idea to go to confession, mass, and then a fancy dinner afterwards. Amanda didn't think anything of it because she was convinced Daniel was going to propose later in the fall. All throughout mass, Amanda had no idea how nervous Daniel was! Little did she know, Daniel was planning on waiting in the church after everyone was gone but didn't quite know how he would pull that off without making it too obvious. Well, it just so happened that Amanda's penance was to pray an entire rosary! Talk about divine intervention! This ended up being a perfect asset to Daniel's secret plan. As they came to the end of their rosary, the church was empty and it was just them and Jesus in the tabernacle. They exit the pew genuflecting, Amanda in front of Daniel and just as Amanda was walking away, Daniel called out to her. She turned around and noticed that Daniel never got up from genuflecting and now had a ring in his hands. He expressed his love for her and asked her to marry him in front of the very person that brought them together.