Our Story

Way back in the fall of 1996, before there was a "Ben and Vickie," I was a first year law student and Ben was working nights. These activities seriously interrupted our respective social lives. Ben responded to this interruption by placing a personal add on AOL: "No visible scars." He was looking for, among other things, a woman who liked football. My response was to answer his ad: "Do the Packers count?" He predicted the future and told me they were going to win the Super Bowl (they did!).

After a few emails back and forth, we learned that in addition to football, we both liked good beer. So, Ben suggested that we meet at the Atlanta Beer Garden. I agreed and we set up a time. The time came and went and no Ben. Somehow, it seemed out of character. So, I went home and emailed Ben to verify our plans. The next day, I had his reply, "I was there, where were you?" I emailed him that I was in the back, drinking a Guiness. It turns out that I was in the wrong place. The Atlanta Beer Garden is a brewpub - they don't serve Guiness! Ben had his first encounter with my notorious lack of any sense of direction.

After a few more emails back and forth and a few voice mails, we rescheduled our first date.When we finally met it turned out that we had more than beer and football in common. We're both cat people (3 between us) and, more importantly, we shared the same values, which we hadn't talked about online. We have been together ever since.

That brings us up to December 2000, more than four years later and I still have no sense of direction (Ben gives very good directions), our cats are fully integrated, and life in our new loft is pretty wonderful. More specifically, it brings us up to December 23rd, 2000. What a great day! We got up early to fly up to New York for Christmas. The airline lost our seat assignments and bumped us up to first class. We made it into Newark just in time to make it for the second quarter of the last Giants regular season game. We had seats on the 50-yard line, right in front of the owners' box. The Giants won, clinched home field advantage for the playoffs (they go on to the Super Bowl next - GO GIANTS!).

After the game, we headed back into the City. We had a nice dinner at Big Nick's Burger Joint, best Greek salads in the world. All of this by itself would have been an almost perfect day, but it got even better. We had been planning on going skating in Central Park and then having a drink at the Plaza, since I had never been there. Instead of skating, we took a walk. Near the skating rink, Ben climbed up some rocks where we could get a better view of the south side of the park. Once we were standing on the rocks, Ben took off his gloves and unzipped his jacket. I thought he was crazy - it was 20 degrees. Ben stumbled a little on his words and started talking about the sweater I had made him. I had always joked that I wouldn't make anyone a sweater until I had a ring. All of a sudden Ben was in front of me on one knee. In disbelief, I gasped, "you're not." He said, "yes, I am." He took my hand, told me loved me and asked me to be his wife. I said "YES!" He gave me a beautiful ring that I still can't stop looking at and smiling.

Now, we really had something to toast at the Plaza! At the Oak Room in the Plaza, Ben's mom, Christine, brother, Sean, sister, Courtney and sister-in-law, Cara met us. We drank champagne, the men smoked cigars and there was much rejoicing. There continues to be much rejoicing. We are SO happy. We look forward to planning a wonderful celebration of our love for our family and friends. Even more, we look forward to celebrating the rest of our lives with you, our family and friends.

With much love,

Vickie