KiaLynne Bland

Mr. Vennekotter met his wife through Mrs. Keeran when he was 26-years-old. At the time, Mrs. Keeran was trying to set him up with her friend’s daughter, only to find out that she was dating someone else at the time. Because of that, Mrs. Keeran introduced Mr. Vennekotter to her friend’s other daughter, who is now his wife. “She (Mr. Vennekotter’s wife) said later that she felt that was kind of weird, but we got past it,” explains Mr. Vennekotter.

The two dated on and off, but ended up happily married. “We’ve been dating and married total for about six years. It (their wedding anniversary) will be five years in May,” says Mr. Vennekotter.

Together, they have a 2-year-old son named Jack who will turn 3-years-old in March. Mr. Vennekotter and his wife are both hoping to expand their family in the near future.

How did you propose? We met at St. Michael’s in Findlay, so that’s where I asked her out. Then, when I went to propose, I thought, ‘Well maybe it would be nice to ask her to marry me the same spot where I asked her out’. So I took her back to the church and asked her to marry me there, and then we actually got married there. But it was on a Saturday morning, and I asked her to go in the church to get the church newsletter, and I made up a reason why I wanted to see that, and so she kept coming up with excuses like we could just look at it online. So I finally said, “Would you just please go get it!” because I had this plan to be down on one knee when she came back out. She had no clue; it completely took her off guard.

How do you like to flatter your wife? Of course I like to tell her how pretty she is, and how thankful I am for her and all of her efforts. Other things I like to do is I like to surprise clean the house --- I know that doesn’t sound romantic, but when you’re our age and married and have a kid, having a clean house that you didn’t have to clean is sometimes a nice treat.