Our story technically started on November 24, 2024, although neither of us knew it yet. One Sunday at church, Austin was sitting right in front of Mary at Mass. We exchanged the sign of peace, said absolutely nothing else to each other, and went on with our day. Apparently, exchanging the sign of peace wasn’t quite enough to get things moving. Enter: Hinge. On November 25th, literally the very next day, we matched. It didn’t take long before we put the pieces together and realized Austin had been sitting right in front of Mary at church less than 24 hours earlier. Even better, we had both been attending the same Mass every Sunday and somehow had never actually met. Divine intervention? Hinge algorithm? A team effort between the two? We’ll let you decide. Just a few days later, on November 29th, Austin planned our first date, and apparently one stop wasn’t enough. We started at Christmas Zoo Lights, combining two of Austin’s favorite things: Christmas and the zoo. From there, we headed to Barnaby’s, Mary’s favorite pizza place, and ended the night at Corby’s, where a quick drink turned into hours of beers and conversation. One date. Three stops. And neither of us really wanted the night to end. Safe to say, we were off to a pretty good start. From there, life together started filling up pretty quickly. We’ve traveled and explored new places, spent lots of time with our families, celebrated holidays and milestones, and learned that some of our favorite memories are the everyday ones in between. A few months after we met, Austin also introduced Mary to another one of his great loves: OrangeTheory. Somehow, willingly waking up to work out under orange lights became quality time, and now it’s one of our favorite things to do together. Nothing says romance quite like competing for splat points. Then, in February 2026, we decided traveling together, family time, and countless OrangeTheory classes weren’t enough of a commitment, so naturally, we bought a house. 🏡 We’ve loved making it ours and building our life together, one project, purchase, and “Do we really need this?” conversation at a time. And then came Mary’s birthday. Mary, being Mary, had planned her entire birthday dinner and assumed she knew exactly how the night was going to go. Austin had other plans. Somehow, he managed to pull off a complete surprise and proposed at the very birthday dinner Mary thought she had planned herself. She planned the dinner. He planned the better part. 💍 So here we are. What started with a sign of peace on November 24th turned into a Hinge match on November 25th, an epic three-stop first date on November 29th, and eventually a life filled with family, traveling, OrangeTheory, our first home, and a whole lot of memories in between. Looking back, it feels like there may have been a few little nudges leading us to each other all along. We just apparently needed both God and Hinge to finally get the hint. 😉 And now we get to start our favorite chapter yet... Becoming the Kearneys. 🤍