B&M

We’re engaged, and you’re invited to our Fall wedding, woohoo!

Benjamin & Mary

November 1 2025

Indianapolis IN

Our Story

Ben's Story

What God has joined together, let not man separate. Mathew 19:6

Mary entered my life through a mutual friend. I got her number and asked her out for coffee. She responded with uncommon energy and humor. Although thrown off a tad, I welcomed this new adventure. We met at a coffee shop for our first date. Although I was nervous, her story soon showed me that I had nothing to fear. I knew she was beautiful, and she has continued to prove that to me.

I was encouraged through her testimony of Christ Jesus's power to save her from her sin and defeat the demonic forces that were against her. I was moved by her faith in God and her confidence that he heard her prayers. I was nourished by the scripture that she had hidden in her heart.

We had a second date at a German Christmas festival, and a third date at the Indianapolis zoo. I shared more of my story and the way God had preserved and grown me in the last few years, and we bonded more and more as friends (who also thought the other was very attractive). We went out for Indian food after our zoo date. I wanted to be courteous and respect her boundaries while at the same time I wanted to call her my girlfriend.

A few hours into dinner, the conversation lulled. I noticed that she wanted to stay, and a short time later we were officially boyfriend and girlfriend. We spend the next several months sharing with each other what we valued and how we each both lived out our faith in Jesus and repented when we failed to do so.

Through our growing friendship, romance, and Christian discipleship it became more and more clear that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together as husband and wife. I am so grateful that I get to spend my life loving my princess Mary as Christ loves his church. Ephesians 5:25

Mary’s Story

I began praying for my future husband in my tweens, shortly after I became a Christian. As the years passed, more and more items found themselves on “The Husband Wish List”: blonde-brown hair, laughs at my jokes, shares openly with me, loves Jesus more than me, chiseled jawline, same age, handsome, athletic, etc.. But, my twenties came and went. Where was my spouse? Did I miss something?

I talked to God about my loneliness. Don’t get me wrong - I had loving family and friends and plenty of adventures to fill my time, bring Jesus glory, and have fun in the process! The guys I crushed on didn't reciprocate, but I was blessed to have a number of suitors. Even though they were God-fearing, lovely gentlemen, I always politely declined because I knew, each time….this isn’t him.

And so I grieved for a man I hadn’t met…yet. Not yet. Then, I reached 30.

In the midst of a difficult season, a trusted family friend, Lisa, asked me if she could share my number with eligible bachelors at her church. “Absolutely!” I replied.

Four days after this conversation, I got a text and read the following from an unknown number: “Hey Mary, this is Ben Beitel, Lisa’s friend. Would you like to go out for coffee next week?"

“Sure, man!” I replied. “I assume you’re not a serial killer?” I had never addressed a stranger with these words before.

He texted back: “I’m not a serial killer, just a cereal eater, haaaaaaaaaaaa."

;) Walp, he took me on a coffee date, and we talked for a couple hours. Then he took me to a German Christmas festival, and we talked for several hours. Then he took me to the zoo, and we talked for many hours.

And, at the zoo, I looked at this handsome, athletic, brown-blonde man who was open with me who laughs at my jokes, loves Jesus more than me, sports a chiseled jawline, and shares my age….giving me one of the noblest, most beautiful salvation/sanctification testimonies I’d ever heard in my life.

And I knew, right there among the Indianapolis Zoo’s gopher exhibits in the dead of winter, that I wanted this man to ask me to be his girlfriend. Please, God, let it be so.

Walp, as Captain Picard said, God made it so.

Benny doesn’t just check off forty-plus characteristics I had put on an ever-growing list of things I was wishing for in my future husband…he reminds me of Christ. He loves me like Christ loves me. He leads me like Christ leads me. He shares the Word with me. He challenges me. He honors me. He listens to me. He delights in me.

And I delight in him.

Thanks, Lisa!