Colleen & Ben - Meet-cute Lovers

I am such a big fan of meet-cute stories and our couple today has one of their own to share. I’ll spare you the details since it would be more lovely if you read it from the bride herself but I’ll tell you one thing, it really is true that, in the words of Colleen,

“You never know where you will find love”

What is your story as a couple, how did you meet & fall in love?

Ben and I met in Mexico. I know crazy right? We were both on vacation, Ben was with his friends and I was with family friends. We were all in the party pool and a friend who is like a mother to me went up to Ben and his friends and asked if any of them were single and would take her daughter up on stage to play the game. I was completely EMBARRASSED! I did not want to go up and participate in this game. Ben right away said I am and grabbed my arm to head up to play this game. I think I gave my second mom a death look. 🙂 The game we had to play was a balloon popping game. We had to run back and forth and pop balloons in different positions. I know embarrassing right? After the game Ben continued to talk to me in the party pool. We talked the rest of the day and the rest of the week. Ben left a day before me so we were both depressed and confused. I lived in Boston at the time and Ben lived in Pittsburgh. When I got home the following day we talked on the phone for five hours. We knew then that this wasn’t some silly vacation romance. We decided to meet again in my hometown three weeks later. So I flew home and Ben met me there. We have been inseparable ever since. We did long distance that whole year and then we decided I would move out to Pittsburgh. It was the best vacation of my life and I was so lucky to have met my soul mate in Mexico. I always say, Thank God for Mexico!!!

What makes the two of you a perfect match?

Ben is a little more shy, he loves sports, he takes care of me, and he is always up to go with my crazy ideas! I am very outgoing, I love to meet new people and he always supports that. Ben is always patient with me and since I moved to Pittsburgh he is always the first person to offer to travel to see my family. For that I love him even more because he recognizes how important they are to me. We both love sports, traveling, watching our tv shows at night and eating snacks. It couldn’t get much better than that!

What was the best advice you received when you were planning your wedding?

The best advice I received while planning my wedding was to not listen to anyone else but yourself. Do what you love and what your vision is. Whether it fits together or not. This is your one day and you don’t want to regret not having something the way you wanted it. I also thinking spacing out everything has really helped. We have enjoyed each step of the wedding process since we have had a longer engagement and could take our time.

What tips & tricks (can we use “hacks”?) can you share future brides that you yourself have learned during and after your wedding?

Don’t wait to make everything at once if you are doing a lot of DIY. Space them out, have wine nights with the girls your mom, mother in law. You don’t want to be stressing last minute if something isn’t working out the way you saw it on pinterest.

What were some challenges you faced while planning your wedding & what did you do to address them?

I haven’t really faced too many challenges so far in planning. I think the biggest challenge was letting go and not trying to please everyone. I was so worried about our guests and how they would get every where. I didn’t want the day for them to be hectic, confusing or annoying! 🙂 Eventually I just had to let go. We needed to choose where and when our wedding was going to be without worrying about them. That was the biggest challenge for me.

What songs did you use during the ceremony?

We are using Never Stop by Safety Suit for our wedding song. This was the song Ben proposed to the wedding version. Ben and his mom are dancing to Landslide and my dad and I are dancing to a Bruce Springsteen song. We aren’t sure about the ceremony music yet!