When my mother died, Ben lifted me up and carried me through life until I found my feet again. I had known that I wanted to marry him for awhile, but after that, I was truly certain. My parents never really commented on my love life, but I remember telling my dad (who lives overseas) about how Ben was caring for me, and he said something along the lines of "We approve." Having my dad agree that Ben was right for me was monumental. I knew and he knew that we should lock it in.

October 2023, we went to our yearly State Fair trip. This year was going to be full of great fair food and..... Why was Ben carrying around a backpack? He didn't give me a chance to look inside and was being so gentle with it I truly thought there might be a puppy inside. After walking and eating.... and eating... and walking some more, we settled at Fernie's Funnel Cakes. He pulls his backpack onto the table, gently pulls out a miniature model of a State Fair food stand that has a ring box in it. I open the box to a gorgeous ring, and he popped the question. I, of course, said yes!

We mentioned the story on our Save the Dates, but I just want to emphasize that he did this completely without my knowledge by bringing the model to work with him, and every day on his lunch break, he would work on it until it was absolutely perfect. If that's not love and dedication, then I don't know what love is.

Photos