Two dates was all it took for Gary Laviolette of Jaffrey.

“By my second date, I knew I was meant to be married to her,” Gary said, referring to his wife Yudelka.

Both had been married once before, and after they first connected through catholicmatch.com, a dating site for Catholics, in early 2021, they navigated a long-distance relationship while she lived on Long Island and two delays to their nuptials before they were married April 23, 2022.

Prior to their first date on March 20, 2021, at a mall in Connecticut, they were talking two to four hours on the phone every day, even when Yudelka’s work as a nursing assistant made it difficult.

“We always found the time,” she said. “Sometimes, I’d have a break at 2 a.m., so I’d call at 2 o’clock in the morning.”

When it was time for the date, Yudelka, 49, was accompanied by her friend and her son to the mall, just to be safe. They had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, and Yudelka’s son walked by without Gary realizing it.

Gary, 54, said the mall was a good place to have a first date, because they could get to know each other as they walked around and it was a public, safe space.

Once they started dating in-person, Gary said Yudelka would come to Jaffrey or he would go to Long Island every other weekend. Around the time of Gary’s birthday on June 3, Yudelka met his family after driving 7 ½ hours from Long Island.

“The whole family was here waiting for me,” she said.

“They were all welcoming,” Gary said. “I had already told them all about her.”

Yudelka’s family is from the Dominican Republic, and it was a dream of her mother’s to go to Niagara Falls. Gary realized that the weekend they were going to go, July 24, 2021, was the same as his parents’ wedding anniversary, so he went with them with a plan to propose.

“I thought, ‘How cool would it be to get engaged the same weekend as my parents’ wedding anniversary?’” he said.

The trip was Gary’s chance to meet Yudelka’s family, and when he proposed on a bridge at Niagara Falls, the onlookers included not only her family, but other people nearby.

“Everybody on the drawbridge circled around, chanted and was part of the backdrop,” he said. “I couldn’t have planned it any better.”

The next obstacle was setting a wedding date. They first planned to get married Nov. 21, 2021, but they wanted to be married in the Catholic Church, and Gary hadn’t been confirmed. He tried Divine Mercy Church in Peterborough and Sainte Marie Roman Catholic Church in Manchester, but their confirmation classes would not end until after Easter.

Saint Patrick Church Jaffrey had a class that would allow him to be confirmed by Nov. 17, 2022 but it was so close, they couldn’t get a guaranteed date for the wedding, so they decided to postpone the ceremony until Feb. 12.

However, at the beginning of December, after visiting Gary’s sister Lisa and her husband Frank Labadini, Gary, Yudelka and Frank all contracted COVID. Gary and Yudelka had minimal symptoms, but Frank died due to complications from the virus in January 2022, leading to another postponement to allow the family to mourn.

Finally the day came, at St. Patrick’s, after a bit of a frenzy at Gary’s house because of work being done there. Yudelka’s family did all the flowers, which they bought at Market Basket, the night before the wedding.

“At the last minute, we pulled it all together,” Gary said.

Yudelka said she had prayed that she wouldn’t have to spend a lot on a dress, and found a place in Nashua that sells pre-owned wedding dresses, including the one she bought for $100.

“I found a beautiful dress for almost nothing,” she said. “When the Lord works in your life, it’s like miracles happen.”

On the morning of the wedding, Gary said Yudelka was insistent that he not be late because he’s always 20 minutes late. Gary’s son and best man Ryan, who was in the Air Force for six years, was put in charge of getting there on time, and he was. Instead, it was Yudelka who was 45 minutes late.

At the church, the program was in English on one side and Spanish on the other, so everyone could follow along, and the ceremony went off without a hitch.

“Everything was perfect,” Gary said. “We were very blessed to be married on that day.”

“It was beautiful,” Yudelka said. “It was a blessing from the Lord.”

Nearly a year later, Yudelka said it’s still a blessing.

“He’s a great father,” she said. “He’s a great husband.”

For his part, Gary said, “I’m the luckiest man on the planet.”

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