"All these little things..."

Ben and Tiffany met the day before Tyler (groomsman) & Shana’s (maid of honor) wedding on October 24, 2014. By the end of the next day they’d laughed, danced, and Tiffany had been handily beaten in Rummy (the beginning of a six year and counting rivalry- Tiffany wholeheartedly denies the results of this first game). Alas, Ben discovered, she was in a relationship at the time, so he waited. And waited. Then, just under a year later, Ben got a phone call. Tiffany was passing through Winston-Salem and wondered if he might like to grab dinner. So began the both unremarkable, and remarkably perfect, (and long awaited) first date.

For the first three or so years of our relationship, Tiffany and I lived about an hour and 45 minutes apart; maybe not so far as it once seemed, but far enough when you only get to see each other a day or two each week. We had long begun the conversation to try and figure out how we might contrive to live in the same city, but our careers got in the way, our intended destination ended up changing, and I was too practical to do anything other than make a prudent financial decision. However, the stars aligned, we began looking for houses, and finally settled on Winston, and then I knew the time was right. I used my grandmother’s diamond, confirmed Tiffany’s taste in rings (slyly, I might add), and made the purchase. Then, on our first night in the house we’d just bought, just before dinner, I cleared my parents out, got down on one knee, and told Tiffany that I didn’t have an elaborate plan or speech, no destination proposal, but that I loved her, that we were, in a very real sense, starting the next chapter of the rest of our lives, and I wanted to do it with her as my wife. She said yes (after getting over the shock of realizing Ben had somehow masterfully succeeded in completely catching me off guard- not a small feat!)