Mary and Ben met at a mutual friend's surprise party at Florida State University in 2013. Like any college love story, Ben asked Mary to be his beer pong partner, and they allegedly were the reigning champions of the evening. The next morning, Mary woke up with a text from the blue-eyed boy at the party asking her to dinner. The two sat at the Mellow Mushroom on Pensacola Street too nervous to eat their food. The evening ended with a pat on the back and a "This was fun." Mary walked into her apartment full of eager roommates and reported that she thought the date went well until the aforementioned pat on the back. She did not think there would be a second date. Much to her surprise, there was a second date where they watched episodes of Blue Mountain State together, the epitome of college romance.

The couple dated for most of college and split amicably come graduation time. Ben was continuing on to law school at the University of Florida, and Mary was staying in Tallahassee. Throughout the years, they remained friends and would make an effort to meet up every year or so to grab a beer and catch-up on each other's lives. Ben always encouraged Mary to keep chasing her dreams, and was her biggest cheerleader throughout the very confusing years in their 20's.

Fast forward to late 2019, Mary moved back to Orlando to flip a small museum and Ben was living in Lake Mary, having just passed the bar. In classic Ben fashion, he randomly called Mary to check-in, meanwhile she had been in town for hardly two months. He invited Mary to a flashback cinema of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and they began hanging out weekly "as friends," or so they thought.

Early 2020, Ben spilled the beans that he still had feelings for Mary. She quickly realized this was not a normal friendship, and their chemistry was undeniable. Come the infamous March of 2020, they were faced with the decision to wait to see each other to "flatten the curve" or join each other's covid bubble and dive headfirst into a relationship when the world was put on pause. They chose the latter, and the two have been inseparable ever since.

The couple spent the next four years traveling the world together, starting new careers, building a foundation in Central Florida, (overcoming a cat allergy), and falling more deeply in love with their lives together.

In August of 2023, the couple traveled to Ireland, a country where both of their ancestors are from. Ben got the flu and was sick nearly the entire trip. On the last day of their travels before they attended a wedding in Dublin, also the first day Ben had been out of bed for the entire week, they visited the Rock of Cashel, an ancient Irish fortress that has been on Mary's bucket list for years. (If you have traveled with Mary, you know she will force everyone to a historic site or museum.) Within 5 minutes of being at the rock, Ben got down on one knee and vowed to love Mary for the rest of his life.

Ben and Mary have created an unbreakable support system between the two of them. They have endured an immense number of unforeseeable life circumstances and continue to come out stronger than ever. They are the true testament of "if it's meant to be, it will happen."

This union is over a decade in the making, and they are so excited to finally celebrate with their loved ones.