With a lot of trepidation, Katherine signed up for Bumble. She set a pretty conservative, small radius around her current city of Wilmington, Delaware - which certainly didn't reach into the Baltimore area. She must have made the not-very-safe decision to swipe through Bumble while driving home to her parents' house in Maryland, because Ben popped up! No doubt about that one. His big smile and trendy bowtie in his photo won her over. With some divine intervention, Ben also swiped right on Katherine. We met for our first date in Wilmington at Iron Hill Brewery - ironically, five minutes away from where Ben's twin brother, Chris, lived...The rest is history in the making...

After five weddings in 2021, we decided that we needed a weekend away. Ben also saw this as a perfect opportunity to ask the big question. The weekend didn't come without some stressful moments outside of the engagement: BWI airport on the way to Savannah was on TSA lockdown; we waited behind a very irritated woman at the rental car counter for half an hour; and, our hotel in Savannah was hosting a fraternity reunion with people everywhere. The ring was tucked into Ben's briefcase inside of his Kiawah Island golf valuables pouch, Ben constantly checking to make sure that it was still there. After walking around Savannah all day, and prior to our dinner reservation, Ben recommended going down to the hotel bar for drinks on the riverfront before dinner. He tried to hint at showering and wearing nice clothes for the cocktails, but Katherine insisted on showering later right before dinner (oops). Ben needed to get the ring out of his briefcase and faked a work emergency to get Katherine away for a minute. After ordering drinks, we walked outside to the riverfront and away from others so that we could be alone and talk. Ben got down on one knee and proposed. What was actually said is all a blur - all Ben knows is that Katherine said, "yes!" The second best part of the weekend was the James Beard Award-winning chicken wings that Ben still talks about. Nothing is more romantic than ordering chicken wings after getting engaged.