August 9th, 2025 on the St Lawrence River!

Kim and Ben first met in 2017... on Tinder. Is that embarrassing? Maybe a little, but oh well. They had their first date at The Spot on The Dock in Burlington, Vermont. Kim was thrilled when she first saw Ben, because he was in fact as tall as he'd claimed on his profile (this was not the case with her other Tinder dates). They dated for a little over two months, until Ben got cold feet and basically ghosted Kim. He claims it was because he was scared of how much he liked her, which is true. At the time, Kim attributed it to rakish behavior... which is also true. Fast forward to 2019: Kim was ready to get back on the dating scene, so she and a fellow single friend got together to create Bumble profiles. As they were swiping using her friend's profile, who should pop up, but Ben! Kim went home and spent the next morning swiping through guys, hoping to come across Ben herself. And when she did, it was an immediate match. Now, the whole point of Bumble is the woman reaches out first. But before Kim could craft a devastating opening line, Ben texted her. "I've been thinking about you a lot lately," he said. And after scolding him for cutting corners, Kim confessed that she had been thinking about him a lot lately too. Of course, Kim is a smart woman. She wasn't about to throw all of her eggs in a basket that ghosted her once already. She kept seeing other people, while still enjoying Ben's company (i.e., he was her side piece while she looked for her main squeeze). Ben would ask Kim when she was going on dates and threaten to spam her phone with pictures of his (clothed) butt. He only followed through on the threat once, and the picture is now his ID photo on Kim's phone. Maybe it was the butt picture, maybe it was the lack of dating prospects in Vermont, maybe it was true love. Whatever the reason, Kim soon realized Ben was serious this time. So she took a chance on him, and hasn't regretted it a single day since. Every milestone that followed was joyous, sappy, and unconventional. The first time Ben called Kim his girlfriend, it was an accident. The first time they said I love you, they were in the middle of cooking midnight ramen. They moved in together in the middle of the pandemic. Ben proposed by hiding the ring in their microwave. Their life together is shaped by rambling conversations, eating too many snacks, watching and dancing to music from South Asian cinema, crying at Disney movies, and talking in silly voices to their cats, Billee and Shah Rukh. Ben and Kim can't wait to get married, and celebrate their love in August of 2025!