I could begin with a fictitious statement by saying that June and Danny bumped into each other in a bookstore like Hollywood often portrays a blooming romance. I'm sure if they did meet at a Barnes and Noble, they would have definitely have met in the world travel section. But the way they really met was even more of a "happenstance" than that.

In December of 2023, Danny wrote a letter to his future wife in which he literally asked, "Where are you? In what country do you reside?" It turns out he was onto something. She lived in Kenya... and Spain... and Charleston South Carolina and soon would be moving to Switzerland for a culinary program.

Boy, if he would have known that just one year later that he'd be engaged to June Ochieng, he would have been smiling bigger than he already did at the time.

In January, Danny took a leap into the daunting realm of online dating and created a CatholicMatch account. Meanwhile, June was attending daily Mass at the Cathedral just five miles away.

June asked God for a very specific type of man. For confirmation, she prayed that he would be a solid Catholic who was left-handed, was devoted to his family and would lead her in the Rosary prayer every day.

Just a week after June downloaded CatholicMatch in mid March, she and Danny would delete the app, because they found each other.

After a grand total of 2 messages to each other, they decided to meet each other the following day. From that point forward they became almost inseparable. They went on their first 10 dates in the span of two or three weeks!

On one of the earlier and more memorable dates, Danny invited June to meet his brothers and soon-to-be sister-in-law, as well as Sean Michael "Smokey" Kittrell for dinner. The results were immediately confirmed, June was in.

Over the past year, they braved and weathered an impending long distance relationship, and journeyed across 3 continents and 4 countries. But despite it all, they now both live in South Carolina and are happily gearing up for their wedding day.

One of the biggest highlights of their journey was Danny's trip to Nairobi and Nyeri, Kenya, June's home country. There, they adopted their first child, an elephant named Toto (which means baby in Swahili). Watch out dog moms!

Danny proposed to June on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, Feb. 11, in front of the tabernacle in Stella Maris Church where they are soon to be married. They chose July 16 as their wedding date to honor Mary on the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (and apparently, Uncle Andy and Aunt Theresa's anniversary!).

Danny and June love you all and are excited to share this special moment with all that can attend, especially those who will be traveling from Kenya, Missouri, Tennessee, Indiana, Virginia, Texas, Canada, Nebraska, Spain and more!!

"Thank you for coming to my TED talk."

Registry