The summer of 2022, I moved from Mankato to the West St. Paul. I was online dating and wasn't hopeful about meeting anyone serious, but I was looking to make friends was open for what might happen.

When Ben and I first met, we had an instant connection and the conversation was easy. We related over our love of reading, Reading Rainbow, sports movies, and Harry Potter.

Before we both left, we decided to meet up for a second date the following week.

That second date was postponed for two weeks due to Ben's uncle passing away in Chicago. I wasn't sure if he was blowing me off or if he really did have an excuse to cancel our date. I did go back and forth whether to trust him or not (a lot of people have weird excuses why they can't meet for dates these days...)

I luckily decided to believe him. We did have a second date.

Followed by a third, fourth, and so on. (Since then Andrew, Ben's brother and best man, has offered to show proof. I didn't need it). ;)

Here are a few things that you may not know about us:

- You can often find us reading at a library on Saturday afternoons. We have made it a goal to read at every library in the Twin Cities. We both agree that the Stillwater library is our favorite (and is where we got engaged).

-When we first dated, we went to Half Priced Books at least once a week. We now go less often, but we are still regulars.

-Ben has a nose for Little Libraries. He loves taking walks and finding books in Little Libraries. I love when he brings me back books that remind him of me.

-It takes a 1,000 books to be considered a library. We are both well over the 1,000 individually. We have a lot of books (and are proud of it).

-Ben claims he is a dog person, but he loves our two cats Moscow and Roxy. Moscow and him had a rough start fighting over my affection, but there is room in my heart for both of them (Ben was well behaved in this situation... Moscow was not).

-We both love playing trivia. On our third date, we won and earned a large container of cheese balls. There have been other trivia winnings since, but that one is my favorite. Because of this love for trivia, we are planning on having trivia at our wedding!

-We both thought that we would be the crazy aunt or uncle before meeting each other.

All I have to say in the cheesiest way, is that Ben and I are made for each other, and I love him dearly. Life hasn't been the same since meeting him, and I couldn't be more happier about our future together.

As we often say, "I like you, and I love you."

We are excited to share our day with all of you and hope you can feel the joy that we both have finding our person after all these years.

Hotel

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Minneapolis - Park Place