You might remember early this fall when we open the applications for our 2019 Couple of the Year. Well, the time has finally come to announce our new couple – Brides, meet Shannon and Ben! We are going to be following this couple through their whole wedding planning process capturing every moment, the beautiful, the stressful, and everything in between!

Hi Readers!

We’re unorthodox, food driven, humor enthusiasts who were brought together by pure luck, great timing, and a mutual friend.

Ben and I (Shannon) met on August 7, 2015, while I was on vacation visiting my cousin out in Astoria, Oregon. Which, for those of you who don’t know, is a whopping 3,176 miles from the city of Boston. Never did I think I’d have to travel so far away from my home state to find my soul mate. My cousin and his wife had been working for months, planting little seeds here and there about me to Ben at work. Ben and my extended family were all in the Coast Guard, stationed at the same unit. They decided to finally clue me in on the set up during our drive to dinner. I was on vacation though and not really looking to waste my time dealing with a guy I was likely to never see again. During dinner, I was 100% myself, probably too much so. Most of my jokes and one-liners throughout the night should have kept Ben at a safe distance away. He surprised me though. Rather than being spooked, Ben kept pace with my humor and wit every step of the way.
After spending a weekend together, I have to admit I was swooning. I felt like I had known him my whole life in the short few days we spent together. I’m generally one of those “no feelings” type of people, but Ben had cracked my no-time-for-romance resolve. Before leaving Oregon I had texted some of my girlfriends back home saying “I met this guy, and if we see each other again I bet we’ll get married” (no joke). Sounds absolutely ridiculous, but clearly I wasn’t wrong. We did the long-distance relationship thing for a year, visiting each other on average about once a month. Come August 2016 Ben had finally gotten out of the Coast Guard and moved East to be with me. Fast forward to Summer 2017. Ben had been working with a jeweler in Downtown Boston to design my dream engagement ring. Priding himself on being an old-fashioned guy, Ben had asked my Dad for permission to marry me beforehand. Knowing how good of a wood-worker my Dad was, he had asked my Dad to create a ring box made out of birch tree (which is my favorite tree). Since we’re obsessed with Christmas time and the holidays in general, Ben had decided to propose to me on the day we picked out our Christmas tree.

Throughout the fall, Ben and my Mom had driven all around Massachusetts trying to find the perfect Christmas tree farm for the proposal to take place at. On November 25, 2017, we drove out to Mistletoe Christmas Tree Farm in Stow, MA. At the farm, there is this adorable, little red side barn which is decked out in holiday cheer. While we were moseying around the spruces, Ben got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Obviously, I said yes or we wouldn’t be where we are today (happily engaged, planning our wedding, scoping out our future puppy, and looking to buy our first home)!!
Our wedding will be on June 21, 2019, at the Barn at Gibbet Hill in Groton, MA. We’ve booked the major items (reception venue, photographer, videographer, etc.). There’s still so much we need to do though. Wedding planning can an absolute rollercoaster – exciting, delightful, emotional, laughable, exhausting, challenging, and draining…especially when you have absolutely no idea where to start and the to-do list seems endless. At the end of the day, all this hard work will be worth it because it will help make our wedding day the best day of our lives! We’re excited to have you all follow us on this journey over the next 7-8 months!

 –   Shannon and Ben

You can find Shannon and Ben’s wedding website here. Follow along with their planning journey every month with a new installment of our Couple of the Year blog series!