Zach’s dad, John Bendick “Ben” disliked pink flamingo lawn ornaments and would often wonder why anyone would have them in their yard. When Zach was 5 years old, he wanted to help celebrate his dad’s 50th birthday. So, the day before Halloween, Zach, Tully, and their mom, Jane decided to borrow 50 flamingo lawn ornaments for Ben’s 50th birthday. It was a labor of love! When Ben got home from work that night, he could barely stand with how hard he was laughing. The lawn ornaments stayed for 2 weeks, but the joke of the flamingo did not end there! The flamingo kept showing up in their lives with flamingo sheets, flamingo stuffed animals, flamingo shower curtains, flamingo pajamas for Ben, and even a flamingo tattoo for Jane on her 50th birthday, 9 years after the date of the original flamingo joke! The pink flamingo became a quiet memorial to John Bendick “Ben” Fjerstad who passed away July 19th, 2004 when Zach was 8 years old. To celebrate and remember Zach’s dad during the celebration of our wedding, if you have any flamingo clothing or objects that you would like to bring to help us remember and celebrate Zach’s dad being present at our celebration, we ask that you do so! If you see anything with a flamingo on it during out wedding celebration, know that it is there for us to have a part of John Bendick Fjerstad present with us while we celebrate this next chapter of our lives together!

We met the first day of high school, in second period gym class. We became good friends for the next 3 years. Senior year came around and we grew closer. We were doing homework together in the library before classes started for the day when Zach asked me out. That was October 10th, 2013 and we haven't looked back since!

We were hanging out at my friend, Fiori's house earlier on in the day when Zach and I were talking about the upcoming closing of the house that Zach was going to buy in 2 days. Because we planned to have roommates as soon as possible when we moved in, we were discussing plans, rules, rent, etc. Zach went to his mom's house for a few hours, where she proceeded to give Zach a ring from his grandmother to propose with, when the time was right. Well, knowing Zach and how spur of the moment and spontaneous he is, he decided that THAT day was THE day! He left his mom's house and stopped at my parent's house on the way back to Fiori's, where he talked to my parents about proposing. When we all were back at Fiori's house, Zach asked me to help him with some stuff he had in his car. He told me he didn't want us to be "roommates," that he wanted us to be partners when it came to the new house and everything else in life. At this moment, he got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him.

We chose our wedding date because on that date, 7 years before is when Zach first asked me to be his girlfriend. We wanted to celebrate our 7 year anniversary and wedding date with all of you!