Bachelor/Bachelorette Party

Rehearsal Dinner

St Teresa's RC Church

Ceremony

Reception

North Tonawanda Fire Engine 6

Wedding Reception

The Original Pancake House

Mass and pay your own brunch

Bridal Shower

Summer

Our Wedding

It all began on September 23rd, 2020 at the St. Greg’s cafe. Morgan was wrapping up at Bible study waiting for her pizza to come out, and this guy walked in as everyone was getting ready to leave. He was on his way to RCIA and had some time to kill, so he wanted to stop in and say hello to the other young adults. Morgan seized her chance to welcome this handsome new man, and he decided to sit down and wait for her pizza with her. As everyone left, the two remained and chatted for about an hour. Aaren ended up being thirty minutes late to RCIA. If you ask Aaren, he will say that Morgan is who made him late. However, Morgan will tell you that he just couldn’t find a good line to ask her for her number. Either way, this was the beginning of a budding romance. After successfully obtaining Morgan’s number, chivalrously escorting her to her car, and making his way to RCIA, the two began texting…. For a day. After this exchange of an entire six text messages, Aaren didn’t text Morgan again for an entire month. Morgan had given up on him when Aaren finally sent her a message. This ensured two whole weeks of texting when Aaren finally asked to meet up after young adult group “to ask her something.” Not a very difficult code to crack, so Morgan agreed. During young adult group that evening, the men and women were separated into two groups to discuss dating; very fitting for the conversation that was to ensue afterwards. The women’s group ended on time, while the men’s group got out late. After waiting fifteen minutes, Morgan was ready to leave, but as if on cue, Aaren had walked across the parking lot to walk her to her car. He had also brought something…. But he forgot it in his car which was still on the other side of the parking lot. Aaren left Morgan standing at her car while he tracked across the parking lot and back. To her surprise, he was carrying a HUGE, perfectly in bloom rose. It was also her favorite shade of pink, which he didn’t know. He asked her out to dinner, and she speechlessly agreed. Aaren waited ten days to finally make the plans for the date. He asked her to get Italian food for dinner at Molinaro’s with him on his 24th birthday, November 28th. This could have been a disastrous birthday for him, but he said she was worth the risk. Morgan spent the day dress shopping and doing her hair while Aaren cleaned his car and did other birthday things. Morgan was ready thirty minutes early, and Aaren was thirty minutes late (slowly becoming a theme) because he got lost at a few of Morgan’s neighbors’ houses. Nonetheless, the couple had a successful first date where they talked and talked and talked. The waitress tried to take their order four times, but the two were so engrossed in conversation that they kept getting distracted from ordering. They eventually talked so long that they closed the restaurant out. Needless to say, this first date led to many more. After three years, three states, five fur babies, two apartments and thousands of more late arrivals, Aaren finally proposed. On December 28th, 2023, exactly three years since they first said I love you on the Feast of the Holy Family, Aaren and Morgan were down in Georgia for a good friend’s wedding. After getting her nails done with the bachelorette party, Aaren picked Morgan up to take her on a date to go fishing. He was of course, late picking her up, but he brought a bouquet of pink roses and purple flowers so she let it slide. The two drove out to Buford Dam Park where the pier he had planned to propose on was closed. Thankfully, they found an open entrance where people can put their boats out in the water. Over to the edge was a beautiful rocky section for fishing. Aaren didn’t have time to assemble the fishing poles, so they set to putting them together. Morgan was rather confused as to why Aaren forgot bobbers and weights, but she went along with it because Aaren seemed so happy and nonchalant. Little did she know that Aaren didn’t plan to actually fish. After Aaren retrieved the bait that Morgan left in the car, he chivalrously put a worm on her hook so that her nails didn’t get messed up. He told her she should cast out and he would be right over after he put a worm on his hook. She cast out, and then Aaren came up behind her a few moments later with the biggest surprise in Morgan’s life. Morgan was completely speechless and shocked as he asked her to marry him! He then explained the symbolism in each aspect of his proposal and in the nuances of the ring he had specially designed for her. It was the absolute perfect way to sum up their relationship thus far, and the future they both so desired. We are excited to share this momentous step in their love story with you on July 12th, 2025. Please join us at St. Teresa’s for the couple’s “I do’s” to their forever together…. as long as Aaren isn’t late.

Our Story

The light pink rose pictured here is the rose that Aaren gave Morgan when he asked her out. Morgan enjoyed eating breakfast with her rose every morning leading up to their first date. Aaren brought over the yellow and orange roses the day after their first date. He brought the yellow one for Morgan and the orange one for her grandma. He hadn’t had time to get roses before their first date, so he dropped them off the next day—a perfect excuse to see Morgan again. He decided to bring the orange rose for grandma because he remembered that Morgan had mentioned that her grandpa was in a nursing home because he had dementia. He figured that since her grandpa wasn’t there to bring grandma flowers, she deserved to be treated like a queen by someone. This was the moment Morgan knew this would be the man she would marry. The dark pink rose was Aaren’s first apology rose— for being late to Mass on their third date of course.

Aaren got to meet Morgan’s family on Christmas. Morgan made a shadow box for him which contained a paper rose, a rose preserved in resin, and three hearts containing where they met, the date they met, and the Bible verse that they had discussed for months. This verse was what they wanted love to mean when Aaren said, “I love you” for the first time. Rather than the love of infatuation, they wanted love to mean that they willed each others’ good.

On December 28th, 2020, Aaren and Morgan said “I love you” for the first time. They accidentally ended up matching at Mass that day in Mary blue. At Mass, it was the Feast of the Holy Family. During the homily, Father Leon explained the meaning of a passage they had been disputing (they both ended up being right and were just explaining it to each other wrong), and he talked about how love meaning to will the good of the other was the most important type of love to have as a foundation for a family. Aaren found this providential, and after Mass, he told Morgan he loved her. Morgan can still hear him looking into her eyes and saying, “Morgan Elyse LeVea, I love you with all my heart.” To which she of course responded “I love you too.”

On their first New Years together, Morgan and Aaren went to see some Christmas lights. At the end of the night they went home to enjoy some cannoli and sparkling cider as they watched the ball drop.

Morgan traveled home from school for Valentine’s Day. For lunch they got ice cream. That evening they went back to Molinaro’s, where they had their first date to pick up some pizza and go home to hang out before Morgan went back to school.

Morgan traveled home to surprise Aaren on the weekend of the Mass of Enrollment. His sponsor was unable to go to the Cathedral with him, so Morgan came to be a stand in for Aaren as he wrote his name into the book of life.

At the 2021 Easter Vigil, Aaren received his Sacraments and officially became Catholic.

Morgan, Aaren, and Morgan’s sister Grace went to Delaware Park for a cute photo shoot when the cherry blossoms were in bloom.

Two of Morgan’s best friends from college, Danielle and Peter, came to visit Niagara Falls so they all met up together. Unfortunately this visit ended early when Morgan had an allergic reaction to cigarette smoke and needed to visit the emergency room.

Summer of 2021 was filled with all sorts of fun. Morgan and Aaren spent lots of time at the beach and park.

On their seven month anniversary Aaren couldn’t resist getting Morgan a baby bunny, which she named Charlotte. This was their first fur baby.

At the end of the summer, Morgan and Aaren travelled down south so that Aaren could try out for a couple of police departments. They began in Florida. Then they drove to Alabama, and ended in Texas — six states over the course of five days. Aaren ended up being offered a position in Alabama.

Before Aaren’s impending move to Alabama, Morgan drove home every weekend all fall to enjoy their time together before they would begin long distance dating.

Morgan introduced Aaren to one of her favorite hobbies, fishing. Aaren also fell in love with fishing and soon every Sunday would be Mass, fishing, Denny’s, and then Morgan would drive back to school.

For her college’s homecoming, Morgan performed magic tricks every year in the talent show. Aaren’s car would not make it that far, so on the day of the talent show, Morgan drove to pick him up. He drove them back, and then they made it back thirty minutes before showtime. The couple enjoyed sharing homecoming weekend together despite them both contracting COVID from it the following Monday.

On their first Halloween together the couple and their fur baby dressed up as cowboys. Aaren also got to carve his first pumpkin. It was a lot of fun!

When the time came for Aaren to move to Alabama, he got a late start to leaving. He decided to drive to Morgan’s school. After her 4:30 class they went to get dinner and then drove through the night to Alabama, switching on and off as they got tired. When they got to Alabama, Aaren put Morgan on a 6:30am plane back to Ohio, where she made it back to school in time for her 1 o’clock tutoring appointment. Then slept until the next day. It was quite an impressive feat!

Aaren looked awesome for his first day of work— minus him sticking his tongue out at Morgan over FaceTime.

When the apartment complex Aaren had originally picked proved to be unsafe, a kind couple Aaren met at Church took him in until he was able to get a new lease. Morgan visited him for Thanksgiving where they enjoyed getting to know the couple’s family. This couple eventually became like family to Morgan and Aaren.

For Aaren’s 25th birthday and their one year anniversary, Aaren requested Mexican. Morgan brought him to Las Trojas, where they surprised Aaren with a sombrero, dessert, singing, and a whipped cream facial to celebrate! This quickly became a favorite Mexican restaurant.

On Christmas break, Morgan went to Alabama to help Aaren find a new apartment. They made her famous peanut butter balls recipe. Aaren had never made Christmas cookies before. When Morgan whipped out the melted chocolate, and a war ensued —which resulted in a very chocolatey Aaren in the end.

Aaren and Morgan spent their first (and only) Christmas in Alabama with the wonderful couple that took him in. Midnight Mass was absolutely beautiful! It was super weird having no snow. Three days later, Aaren moved into his new apartment.

The couple celebrated Mardi Gras with some friends they met at a young adult group in Alabama. This was a few days after Morgan had travelled to Alabama to surprise Aaren with a new bunny to keep Charlotte company. They named him Hugo, and he soon after became one of the most important pets in Aaren’s life.

Eventually that March, the couple decided that Aaren needed a dog to keep him company while Morgan was at college. Mustang was a high energy and nibbly puppy who enjoyed snuggles and playing tug of war. Mustang was very anxious being separated from the rest of the litter.

To remedy Mustang’s anxiety, the couple returned to the Huntsville Humane Society five days later and adopted his brother, Corvette, who they renamed Diesel. Diesel had been Mustang’s pen-mate since they entered the shelter, and was the perfect addition to their furry family.

On Good Friday, Morgan and Aaren participated in a Living Stations of the Cross. Aaren played Judas and Morgan played Mary — an unlikely pair. They enjoyed celebrating Easter together in Alabama, just the two of them.

Aaren and Morgan went out to Easter brunch with some of their friends down in Alabama. Afterwards they took one of their favorite pictures of all time with the bunnies and puppies.

Summer in Alabama came with tons of fun activities. From craft shows, to shooting, bringing the puppies to the weekly farmer’s market and much more, the couple had a blast!

One of the puppies’ favorite excursions was to go shopping at Lowe’s. The staff loved to visit with the puppies and give them paint sticks to chew on.

We had a fun visit with some of Morgan’s lifelong friends, Hannah and Mary. Although the trip didn’t go completely as planned, they still had fun visiting the space center, Ave Maria Grotto, a renaissance festival, and much more. Aaren even gave the three girls mani pedis!

When Morgan’s sister, Grace graduated from high school, the couple traveled back to New York to celebrate with her. At this time they also obtained the rest of Aaren’s belongings, adopted their final fur baby, Bugs, and celebrated the Fourth of July.

For Morgan’s 22nd birthday, she had a wonderful time at work nannying. After work, Aaren took her for Mexican (where he thoroughly enjoyed getting her back for his 25th birthday). Then they went to a free country concert at Athen’s State University.

Morgan travelled to Alabama on Fall Break where the couple dressed up and went to sonic to celebrate Halloween with some friends.

Morgan also travelled back to Alabama for Thanksgiving where the two prepared their first ever Thanksgiving dinner just the two of them, thanks to Morgan’s farm family back in Ohio. Mustang got flower all over him from being underfoot as Morgan made her famous scratch apple pie.

After Morgan’s Fall semester ended, she travelled back to Alabama to help Aaren move back to New York. Alabama ended up being too expensive, so moving back to Buffalo made sense. However, Aaren didn’t have a TV, so the pair didn’t know that Buffalo was about to be hit with a flash freeze resulting in the Christmas storm of 2022. The South also froze over and the highways were filled with people who didn’t know how to drive in the snow. Morgan was driving the uhaul, while Aaren drove the pets in her Chevy trax. They got trapped on a one mile strip in Kentucky from 6:30am to 11:30am because of an accident a couple sixteen wheeler trucks got into. It was negative nine degrees and people were getting out of their cars to pee on the side of the road. Eventually, after 36 hours of driving, the pair made it to an Airbnb in Pennsylvania. After sleeping straight through Christmas, they realized their uhaul rental was going to become due. They ended up leaving all of Aaren’s belongings in a storage unit in Washington, PA. Then they went to Morgan’s friend Danielle’s place and stayed with her and her parents for a day until the I-90 reopened and they could travel back home.

Morgan and Aaren got to enjoy Christmas with their family a few days after the storm was cleaned up and the pair had made it safely to Morgan’s place.

The couple traveled back to Alabama to finish the apartment repairs and pack the remaining items up to bring back to Buffalo with them. The cars were filled to the brim, and their year and a half in Alabama ended the same way it began — staying with their adopted family in Alabama. They still miss them greatly.

Four months later, Aaren was still living at Morgan’s mom’s house while he found a job and new apartment in Buffalo. Morgan went back to Ohio for student teaching and graduated in May with her elementary and special education degree. This was the joyful end to long distance dating. The pair celebrated that they would no longer need to date across the country anymore and could live in the same state again.

Over the summer of 2023, Morgan got herself a teaching job at the Pioneer School district as a second grade integrated special education co-teacher.

Morgan got to celebrate her 23rd birthday at home this year with her family and Aaren all together.

At the 2023 Erie County Fair (a favorite summer event for the couple) Morgan covered Aaren in an excessive amount of butterflies. Aaren also got to join in on one of the free shows during the day, and meet up with some old friends. They had a blast!

Aaren was a groomsman this summer for the wedding of one of his best friends, Sam. This was a fun way to end the couple’s first summer together back in Buffalo.

For homecoming weekend, Morgan and Aaren went back to Franciscan to visit some friends, Alvio and Esmerelda. They also got to visit Morgan’s farm family and got all of their fur babies blessed for the Feast of Saint Francis. If you ask Aaren, he will tell you that this was the animals’ version of Baptism so they can go to Heaven. However, Morgan will tell you that this is theologically inaccurate because we do not require pets in the beatific vision. Aaren will respond to that, that the jury is still out.

In October Danielle and Katie, some of Morgan’s best friends from college came to visit. They went to Niagara Falls, the Strong Museum of play, Canada, Mass at Saint Greg’s, and the Great Pumpkin Farm (where they shot zombies with paintball guns).

For Halloween, Morgan’s school had a garden theme for the staff to dress up as. So, Morgan decided that it would be funny to dress their actual rabbits up as carrots and have the rest of the fur family dress up like bunnies. Obviously Morgan HAD to put Aaren in the pink bunny costume. Aaren was a good sport about it (which means he passed the test and will make a great girl dad one day). The dogs were less than pleased to wear the bunny ear headbands, but in the end the costumes were a big hit and the trick or treaters loved petting the carrot bunnies.

For their upcoming three year anniversary and Aaren’s birthday, the couple couldn’t decide who would plan the anniversary celebration. In the end, they decided to go with three celebrations for three years. Morgan would plan one celebration for his birthday, and one for the anniversary. Aaren would also plan a celebration for the anniversary. Their first date was a day at the Strong National Museum of Play. They did all the crafts, the butterfly garden, and even the high ropes course. One would think that with her asthma and his police background that Aaren would be the daredevil and Morgan the afraid one on the ropes course. However, Aaren was actually the terrified one who went down a level, and Morgan the one who did each and every obstacle. The zip line was the highlight of the course.

For Aaren’s birthday, Morgan took Aaren to Painting with a Twist in Pittsburgh, where they had a paint your pet day. They enjoyed chocolate wine and a charcuterie board while Aaren painted ‘King’ Hugo, and Morgan painted Ruby, her grandma’s dog for grandma’s Christmas present. They ended the evening with milkshakes and Country music as they drove back home.

For Morgan’s graduation her mom gave her a gift card to the Melting Pot. On their actual anniversary and Aaren’s 27th birthday the pair went to the restaurant for a romantic dinner experience. This was one of the most entertaining, unforgettable, and delicious dinners they had ever had, especially the fondue dessert.

Christmas was a whirlwind in 2023. It came quickly, and the pair were exhausted from making 30 fleece tie blankets. Aaren fell asleep wrapping them, but the had an unforgettable holiday experience with their families. They even got a fur family photo with Santa!

On December 28th, 2023, Morgan and Aaren were down in Georgia for one of Morgan’s best friends, Grace’s wedding. After Morgan went out to get her nails done with the bridal party, Aaren picked her up and said he was taking her on a fishing date. In actuality, he was taking her to a gorgeous place to propose, exactly three years after he had said “I love you” for the first time. Although everything Aaren had planned went awry, Morgan still said yes — how could she not, he is her best friend after all! The pair celebrated by going out for Mexican at Las Trojas, the same place where they celebrated their one year anniversary when Aaren had first moved to Alabama. They then arrived late to Grace’s wedding rehearsal dinner, where the first thing her soon to be husband, John did when he came in was check to see if Morgan was wearing a ring, since Aaren had cleared it with them ahead of time. Getting engaged was the last thing Morgan had expected to happen in Georgia, especially while they were fishing. Aaren is very proud of himself and how well he pulled the surprise off.

Our Scrapbook

Katie Power

Andrew Erdman

Grace LeVea

Andrew Clark

Danielle O'Keefe

Samuel Mancini

Grace Callahan

John Callahan

Zoe Gilbert

Peter O'Keefe

Kristin Filk

Adam Jarosz

Caroline Erdman

Christian Mang

Sara Dworzanski

Matt Gomes

Miranda Blinzler

Jake Lis

Kitty Xie

Robert Darch

Arie Decker

Tony Peters

Maren Forbes

Andrew Jaremko

Wedding Party

Q + A

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Travel

This is a favorite date of the bride and groom, especially the butterflies. Fun for people of all ages!

The Strong National Museum Of Play

While you’re in the area, make sure you don’t miss checking out one of the natural wonders of the world!

Aaren & Morgan

Aaren & Morgan

A&M