I (Katie) heard about about Ben long before he knew about me. My sophomore year roommate Abby is his cousin and before Christmas break she started bringing up that her cousin was coming home from his mission soon. And that he was single, super smart, outdoorsy, oh and he liked contra dancing. Obviously that wasn't a bad list but I didn’t think much of it until she invited him over for dinner. I guess she forgot to mention he was cute… Anyways Abby had to take it from there though because we were both too shy to do anything so she gave him my number. Then she told each of us that the other was interested in going on a date so our first date was basically trickery. But hey I fell for it! That was in February and we started dating through that summer before life took us different directions and I went on a mission. He wrote me the whole time and though the distance was hard, in the end he won me over. There’s a lot more to the story but since you’re reading this on our website, I guess you know how it worked out :)

We were both ready to go and had even gone ring shopping, but with an upcoming surgery and time flying, I (Ben) decided to make my move before the diamond arrived. I tried to carve a temporary ring out of marble, and when it broke, I called up my machinist brother to teach me how to lathe one from brass. Katie's a sleuth, always calling the rom-com twists, so I told her we would go on a hike every day for a week! On hike number 2 on a Sunday afternoon, I dropped some hints that I would pop the question another day, we hiked to Buffalo Peak, and read some scriptures together on a beautiful valley hillside. On our way back, I took her hand and we started swing dancing at an overlook. After a minute, I spun her around, knelt down, and pulled the brass ring from my pocket -- She was speechless -- I had to kneel down again afterward so she could process what I said! We had a giddy hike back to the car :) When the fancy ring came, I knelt down again after we checked out our future apartment. We were both pretty sick, but that made our day! *Photos by Sarah Jane Zenger*