Our story began with a proposal. We both attended Marian’s Big Event and were enjoying a time of community and celebration of a new school year of 2022. Somehow we started a conversation about our love for parties and weddings. We came to an agreement that we should host a party and while we’re at it why not get married! So, that night, I very openly in front of our friends asked Ava to marry me. We set up a date and started “flirting” with the idea of getting married. As the months passed it became a running joke and when the date came she left me waiting at the altar. By the end of that school year I was determined to ask a girl on a date…and that girl was going to be Ava Kalscheur. Unfortunately for Ava I believed I had no chance.


The two of us were at World Youth Day in Portugal in the summer of 2023 and the sparks really started to fly. I was dodging her flirtatious gestures left and right without realizing it. It was in Portugal surrounded by a million other Catholics that I realized she was truly 1 in a million.


We returned to the States and started the new school year. Ava turned up the offense and tried every tactic to help me see her feelings for me. After several “coffee dates” she confronted me and told me how she felt. I panicked and had to tell her that I was caught off guard and “saw her as a really good friend”. My hope was that we could continue to be friends and that this wouldn’t have changed anything. It did. It was the day before Halloween when I rejected Ava, to both of our surprise it would be less than a year later that we would be engaged. But as for this moment I believed that I had lost Ava for good.


The rest of the semester continued and we were both lost in what we wanted and what we saw in the other person. We came back for the Spring semester of 2024 and Ava wasted no time at all. She found me in the Theology Lounge and asked me, “have you considered auditioning for Little Women??” I went to those auditions fully hoping I would get the part and be able to spend more time (even just a little) with this girl. After I got the part of Mr. March, Ava and her co-director sent out to the cast that if anyone needed time outside of rehearsal to talk about their parts to reach out. “Hey, Ava! I’d love to go over my script with you. How does Monday sound? 4pm?” We would spend fifteen minutes talking about my character and then an additional two hours about everything else! We continued these special “coffee meetings” until one day she invited me to go rock climbing with her. I told her that I was already an avid goer and could show her some of my climbing techniques. I signed up for a membership that same day. So now, we had coffee, climbing and character conversations all as my excuses to spend time and learn more about my dream girl.


The text came in late on Sunday night in February. “Hey, do you want to talk about…us? Like everything that is happening.” We met up after Theatre that Monday and we ventured into the park connected to campus. I stopped dead in my tracks and looked her in the eyes. “Ava, I love our friendship and would be more than happy if we could possibly be more…but I can’t.” her heart skipped a beat. “Connor, what do you mean?! Why not?!!?” I took a deep breath “Well, I feel as though I need to rewind and do this right. You see I asked you to marry me before I even asked you out on a date. I want to do things right. So, can we start all over?? Cause I’d really like to go on a date with you!!!” She said yes and the rest was history. :)


We went on our first date one week later. We both knew we were made for each other when we suggested that we start with 6:30 A.M. mass at Sacred Heart parish. One week later we made it official. Connor Matthews was dating Ava Kalscheur! The next couple months were filled with Theatre, finishing Junior year, praying, crying, laughing…and falling more deeply in love everyday.


Summer came and went and we found each other again at Marian University. Unbeknownst to Ava, I had already asked her dad, before the summer had ended, for her hand in marriage. I bought the ring soon after starting our Senior year at Marian. Bets were made among friends, and prayers were offered from both families when I made it very clear to pretty much all of campus: I was going to ask Ava Kalscheur to marry me.


The day of the proposal it rained. There was a power outage at St Barnabas parish where we attended Sunday mass the morning of the 29th of September. We celebrated the Eucharist and then spent the morning together with her family. I drove her to the theater and it was then I had time to prepare the final stage of my plan. It was 12:30pm when Ava texted that she would be finishing early. No better time than now. We had made plans to pray the rosary together in the BCMC before meeting up with her family. The chapel was quiet and filled with serenity. I would comment later that our rosary felt like time stood still. We finished our prayers and then there was silence. “Ava, do you want to practice going down the aisle??” That was the best I got. This was something we had been doing since the spring, where we would “practice” what it would feel like walking down the aisle after our wedding. I brought her to the foot of the altar and got down on one knee…she said yes.


No story is perfect, but we are made perfect by Christ who married us on that cross.