National Marriage Week is celebrated from February 7-14. Our faith recognizes the importance of a couple's commitment before God and the beauty of the sacrament of marriage. TEC has played a special role in many love stories across the country! Here are just a few that have shared their story with us...
Andrew Englund & Katie Markey
Great River TEC - Engaged
My fiancé, Katie Markey, and I met on Great River TEC #336 in January 2023. She was a table resource on the weekend and I was an adult observer. We talked very little and had little interaction with one another throughout the weekend, and at the time, I was discerning the priesthood. Over the summer, her name came to me during Adoration and I asked my friends that knew her for her number. I asked her out, and our first date was actually Adoration at our TEC chapel. By November 2023, I asked her to marry me before Adoration in the TEC Chapel. After Adoration was over, Fr. Zehnle offered a blessing on us as a newly engaged couple. Our wedding is July 6, 2024.
Alex & Katrina Barth
Bloomington-Normal TEC - Married 3 months
My husband Alex and I met during the summer of 2022 while in preparation for Bloomington Normal TECs #149 and 150. Alex grew up in Bloomington and had been involved in TEC since he was a teenager, but I was still new to the community. We saw each other from across the room during masses and meetings, but both of us were too nervous and awkward to approach the other. So in true modern day love story fashion, we actually connected and had our first conversation on a dating app! We went on our first date on June 24, 2022, and were engaged seven months later. Alex and I entered into the holy sacrament of matrimony three months ago on October 21, 2023, and are now preparing for our second TEC weekend together!
Megan & Connor Ackerman
TEC New Orleans - Married 2 years
My husband and I met on TEC in January 2014. It was both of our first TEC as juniors in high school. At the end of the retreat he asked for my number and I told him, "It's on the roster." To my surprise, he actually wanted to talk to me. We became really good friends, and 4 months later, we were officially dating. We worked a few TEC retreats here and there over the years. We got engaged July 4, 2020, and married in October 2021. We are expecting our 1st child February 16th, so we decided we needed to work another TEC before the baby comes. It was just what we needed to prepare our minds and hearts for this new chapter in our lives.
Alex & Megan Rohlik
Riverbend TEC - Married 2 years
We originally met at Riverbend TEC #239 in 2012. Occasionally we would run into each other after mass and would have short conversations as we walked out of mass. We reconnected in 2019 while working Riverbend TEC #271. Shortly after, we started dating, and 2 years later we got married. Since getting married, we strive to work one TEC weekend a year together. We have been blessed with three kids, two year old twins and a four month old girl.
Adam & Ashleigh Eisiminger
Heartland TEC - Married 12 years
When I was 17, my friends convinced me to go on a TEC retreat. My friend, Adam Eisiminger, was a "Wheatie" on the weekend. That weekend was when I met his parents and he met mine. He asked my parents if he could drive me home after the retreat was done. On the way home he asked me to be his girlfriend. That was 15 years ago. We have been married for 12 years and have three beautiful children.
Ed & Jenn Merritt
TEC New Orleans - Married 13 years
Ed and I met on New Orleans TEC 89. We saw each other at later TEC events. In May 2008, he asked me to be his date to his sister's wedding. We were married in 2010 and now have 2 boys, 6 1/2 and 5 years old.
Jason & Kim Kotecki
Peterstown TEC - Married 24 years
We met while Christmas caroling at a TEC social gathering. We had both recently been on a team for the first time. Since we met so young (I was 16 and he was 18), we grew in our faith together as a couple, so much so that when we were married after college five years later we felt a calling to surrender our marriage and careers to God's will, and we haven't looked back. We now have a 24 year ministry/business helping encourage people to reconnect with their childlike spirits, like Jesus asked us to, creating lives filled with adventure, meaning and joy.
Mike & Vicki Bjork
Riverbend TEC - Married 35 years
My husband and I met in August of 1984 at Riverbend #51 in New Ulm. We were both Tecites. We were at different tables but had friends in common who got together after the TEC and developed a friendship through that. We dated for a while in 1985 and again in 1986 and got engaged in December of 1986. We married in August of 1988 and are still married, almost 36 years now. We have 2 grown daughters, one of whom has made a TEC. We worked many TECs together from 1984 through 1988. We still have many friends from that time in our lives and have fond memories of our time together.
