Our Story

We met on September 27th, 2016. Our annual Common Dialogue Day conference required Kiersten to find students to give speeches during our afternoon prayer service. She sought out nominations, as she always had, and received a list of 20 names. Kiersten was surprised, given her involvement at SHU, to find a name she didn't recognize. It was even more surprising to find that name nominated by no less than 4 different people! The surprise was even further magnified when she met Ben at the conference and discovered that all of her closest friends knew him, too.

Over the next two weeks, we dove into a whirlwind of get-to-know-yous which involved a lot of late night conversations both in person and over the phone. We had our first official date on October 13th at the local bowling alley. Kiersten had so much fun with this charming man! Outside of every rational thought, we decided to make this crazy thing official and became a couple at 2:00am on October 16th, 2016 - We had only known each other for a few short weeks!





It didn't take long to be head over heels. Ben is not only sweet and charming, funny and smart- he is also prayerful, compassionate and unconditionally loving. In the beginning stages of our romance, before we were comfortable with a word as passionate as love, Ben wanted her to understand how strongly he felt and said "Kiersten, you are the sock to my tennis shoe!" She couldn't help but laugh as we unpacked this phrase and she imagined one day we would get married and put socks and shoes on each other instead of rings.


In the months that followed, we learned about love as we both grew to know and love God through each other. We both were quickly able to envision spending the rest of our lives together.

Ben went through the RCIA process to receive the sacrament of Confirmation through the Catholic Church. We spent 9 months discussing, listening, learning and most of all praying. Meanwhile, we were growing ever confident in our future together. So, when Easter Vigil came, the night of his confirmation, Kiersten had no doubt a proposal was coming - she just wasn't expecting it to come before Mass!

Ben surprised her that Saturday afternoon, by making Kiersten tell our silly sock and tennis shoe story in front of some of our closest family members and then dropping to one knee to ask her to be the sock to his tennis shoe for the rest of our lives. She was so shocked, she didn't know how to say yes, right away!

That night, he went through the sacrament of Confirmation. In the months since, we have begun preparing to enter the sacrament of Matrimony, together. We are so excited we will get to share this special day with all of our friends and family!

Feel free to comment below any advice you may have for us, or even just remarking on how cute we are.