By Love in winter is like a snowflake; unique, delicate, and magical, melting away the cold with its warmth.
Bennett and Julieona really are high school sweethearts: They met during their senior year at Lake City High School in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Bennett Ford is a junior majoring in biology on the pre-med track. Julieona Nicole is junior majoring in health science. Nicole transferred here last fall and is on the Carroll cheer team.
Ever since they met through mutual friends, the two have been inseparable.
Julieona and Bennett are an example of this winter love.
December 23, 2024, started like any other day over Christmas break. But Nicole had a hunch that this day might be special.
They were going to coffee with a friend and had a couple’s photoshoot planned. She watched Bennett closely to see if he was acting strangely, but she couldn’t see anything odd.
As they went to the photoshoot location, she discovered it had no special meaning to them as a couple.
Maybe this would just be an ordinary day, after all.
“I’m looking in the other direction waiting for the camera to be ready, but I was really waiting for Bennett to remember to get on his knee,” Nicole explained. “And at that moment I turned around and saw him kneeling down. All the emotion and excitement rushed over me and it was just a big blur. In all the excitement, I accidentally got down on one knee with him.”
On the other side of things, Ford was nervous and excited.
As they went to coffee and were heading to the location of the photoshoot, he was thinking about everything, from what knee he was supposed to go down on to practicing what he was going to say in the moment. As the time came, he was so nervous thinking about everything the photographer had to tell him to get on his knee.
“Everything I planned on saying went right out the window, so I spoke from the heart,” said Ford. “After that moment, I read the note that had everything on it and was still able to express everything I wanted to say.”
After he asked the question, he was mostly relieved. He still had surprise parties to get through before the day was done.
“Being engaged is a great feeling. It is a big step forward towards our future of building a family and life together,” said Ford. “It is also very rewarding, as it represents all the work we have put into the relationship.”
They both are very excited about this big step in their lives. They have both been wanting this and are now closer to their dream of being married and living their lives together.
They plan to get married after they graduate, sometime in June 2026.
