Our story began when we met sometime in our first year as students at St. Bens and St. John’s. Though we never dated in college, we were part of the same friend group and we tailgated Johnnie football games, went to Mass, and of course, frequented Sal’s. When Covid began in March 2020, Ben was working for BlackRock in Boston. Like many others, he came home to Minnesota to quarantine and work from home for what he thought would only be “a few weeks." In these few weeks, we reconnected and realized we were never really just friends. Weeks turned into months and months turned into a year, and Ben decided to not move back to Boston. Ben got a remote job in finance and I continued to teach 5th grade. We’ve spent the last 2+ years going to country concerts, taking fun trips, going to football games, hanging out with our families, and spending time with our Bennie/Johnnie friend group.

It didn’t take long to realize that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Katherine and I soon found myself shopping for a ring and asking Mark and Mary Kay for their blessing to ask her to marry me. I decided I wanted to propose where our story began seven years ago - at St. Ben’s/St. John’s. My only dilemma was convincing Katherine to make the trip up to Collegeville for seemingly no reason. As fate would have it, about two weeks before the big day, we were sitting in church on a Sunday morning when Katherine leaned over and whispered “we should go up to St. John’s for Mass this fall.” Trying to hide my excitement, I agreed and the plans were made. On September 18th, after nervously sitting through a Mass at the St. John’s Abbey that seemed to drag on for an eternity, I told Katherine that we should walk down to the lake and sit on one of the benches for a bit. As we arrived, thanks to the help of my amazing sister-in-law and nieces, Katherine spotted a blanket covered in roses by the lakeshore and looked at me to see if I saw it too. When I didn’t say anything, she began to piece together why we were there and what was about to happen and I proposed right there on the shore of Lake Sagatagan. After the proposal, we stopped by the La Playette bar in St. Joseph where unbeknownst to Katherine, both of our immediate families were waiting for us with champagne (and a fishbowl) to celebrate. Later that night, all of our family and friends gathered at the Hird house to celebrate with us, marking the end of a perfect day. We cannot wait to share our wedding day with friends and family and can’t thank each and every one of you enough for your love and support over the years!