Greetings! It's 2021 finally and COVID is still a thing, some of you have had it and recovered, some of you have lost family members or friends, and our thoughts are with all of you. We hope everyone is able to secure a vaccine as quickly as possible, and help make 2021 the year this all turns around. Last year we had to make a difficult decision at the very last minute and cancel our wedding as it was planned. We decided we still wanted to keep our nuptial date of November 20, 2020 and proceeded with a small private/virtual wedding on our deck with very little family in attendance, and a good number of them and our wedding party via Zoom. It wasn't exactly what we had in mind when we started planning our wedding in 2019, but we still did the thing, which at the end of the day was all we really wanted. Now it's time for us to celebrate with every one of you that can make it! For our backyard wedding, we decided to forgo Mary wearing her Dress, and Ben wore an older suit, we also decided to put off the vows we wrote and had our officiant provide us some simple ones. We want this November 13th to be the "wedding" we planned it to be last November. Guess you could call it more of a renewal of vows. All the details should be almost exactly the same except the date. We can't wait to have you all here finally to celebrate with us.

Hello Everyone! We really wanted to celebrate our wedding with as m any friends as possible, even with the currently pandemic. Unfortunately Kansas City and Missouri as a whole have not done well to contain COVID, especially in recent weeks. Due to all of this, we've had to make a number of changes over the past week. Our latest and final decision was to forgo the ceremony completely, and quietly tie the knot at home, and sharing the moment via video call with only our direct family that are unable to attend. Because of our latest changes we have cancelled our live-stream, but the facebook event is still out there for everyone to follow and be notified of any additional changes. We are also asking that anyone following please share in "remote celebration" with us by enjoying a drink of your choice, and please share a picture wherever you are, we'd love to use them for a project to display around our home. We will be rescheduling our reception to next year, and will be sending out new save-the-dates and invites as soon as possible. We hope we get to celebrate with everyone soon. Please wear your mask, wash your hands, and take COVID seriously. Sincerely, Us https://www.facebook.com/events/708520380096567/

Our story began on August 20, 2016 in New Richmond, WI. Ben had been living in Kansas City, MO for a few months and was back in town visiting. Mary had just moved to New Richmond after accepting a job as the high school's Athletic Trainer. Both were out celebrating downtown; Mary with her friend Pam, and Ben for his friend Cody's birthday. We both ended up at Bobcat's bar at the same time where our path's crossed for the first time. After learning Mary was new in town, and new to Wisconsin, he bought her and Pam a spotted cow, her first time trying it, and numbers were exchanged before we went our separate ways.

A few months later (November, 2016), Ben was back home again and decided to reach out to Mary to invite her for drinks and she accepted. Rather amusingly, neither one of us remembered what the other looked like from the night we met, so the date started off as a blind date. We met at Champs bar and grill and without remembering much of anything about Ben, she opened a tab at the bar while trying to figure out where he was. After finally finding each other, laughs were had over drinks and dinner as they began getting to know each other. As the evening started to wind down, we asked the bartender for our checks. However, there was some confusion on the server's part and she ended up putting everything on Mary's tab and handing her the bill. Not wanting to make a big deal about it, she jokingly looked at Ben and said, "I hope you enjoyed your meal." Seeing it as an opportunity, he insisted on a second date so he could pay. Mary quickly agreed and the two made plans for the following night for dinner and a movie. After these first two dates, Ben had to return home to Kansas City, and he immediately began looking forward to his next trip north to see Mary.

Over the next month we slowly began to get to know each other better over text and phone calls, even while Ben was traveling for work. With Christmas coming quickly, he made sure he was able to get off work for a long weekend to go home and spend some more time with Mary. After a couple more dates, we were finding ourselves growing fond of each other rather quickly, and before Mary had to fly out to Colorado for her own family Christmas, Ben asked if she wanted to "give this a shot" even with the long distance between us, to which of course, she said yes!