A Chance Meeting Meant to Be

Katy Sellers Didn't Want to Go Out That Night, But in a Moment Her Life Changed Forever

By Bill Snead

Thursday, August 23, 2007

A couple of years ago on an ordinary evening that would change her life, Katy Sellers and a female friend dropped by the American Tap Room in Reston. Her friend assured Katy they wouldn’t be staying long. Katy hoped she meant it.

"I really didn't want to be there," Katy said, "so I sat down, started watching some ballgame on TV and this good-looking gentleman came over and started talking to us."

She described him as "kind of shy."

She was talking about the man she would marry, Ben Prime.

Neither lived far from the Tap Room -- Ben near Herndon and Katy in Reston.

"Wait a minute," said Ben Prime, now her fiance, "let me say something here."

Take two: Ben’s version.

He was there waiting for a friend and had seen the two women walk into the bar area looking for an empty table. They found one that was half-empty. There was a glass of beer in front of one of the two empty chairs. A few minutes earlier, Ben had seen the beer’s owner put on his jacket and head for the door.

"I walked up behind Katy, put my hand on her back and said 'if a pretty lady like you sat down in my seat, there is no way I'd make her get up.'" And he asked that she please take his seat.

Hey, whatever works.

Katy, 33, confessed that her role that night was being a "wing man" for her friend. That's the person who steps into a conversation if their comrade is at a loss for words and doesn’t compete for the attention of someone a friend might be interested in.

Ben's friend arrived, began telling jokes and introduced Ben to the girls as Keanu Reeves, the actor. He soon disappeared, leaving Ben to chat with Katy's friend while Katy continued her focus on television.

Ben, 32, soon tapped Katy on the shoulder. The two talked for a while and soon Ben made his move and sat next to Katy.

Over drinks they talked about fate, mixed in a little religion and then got back to the topic of fate.

They agreed that fate was one of life's mysterious ingredients. A person could be stopped by a friend on the street, missing a potential catastrophe that’s happening a block away. Or two people could stop by the same bar for a drink at the same time on the same night.

"Let’s test it," Ben said, opening his cell phone.

He asked for her phone number. Katy said she "was shocked," but gave it to him anyway.

"I called it right then and there ... you have to call a number to store it in your phone,” he said with a grin.

Photo: Bill Snead

Bagpiper Bryan Stuller, from Howard County, Md., piped the newlyweds to the carriage while they took advantage of the romantic moment.

Katy said they hung out for a while before going their separate ways. Ben said, "We closed the place.”

When Katy got home, her phone rang and it was a text message from Ben. She answered, and they spent the next hour exchanging messages.

Soon, their nightly telephone sessions grew longer, lasting for hours, and sometimes they talked until it was time to shower and head for work. Ben would drop by her apartment when Katy's friends were over watching a movie. They soon were in touch every day.

"We tried to take a night or two off from one another because we weren't getting any sleep," Katy recalled. “It just wasn’t possible.”

Months passed and Katy said Ben began moving into her apartment, "one piece of clothing at a time." Closet space was scarce, so Ben built more shelves.

Both agreed they knew this was the real deal from the beginning.

In October, Ben took Katy to meet his parents in Fairfax. After dinner and friendly conversation, Ben’s father, Michael, hugged Katy goodbye.

Katy said, “remember you said your father never hugs people when he first meets them and your folks said later that ‘this is the woman you’re going to marry.’”

Ben lost his job in October. "I wasn't worried ... I knew things would work out,” he said.

‘The Only Gift I Want This Christmas’

Christmas was on the horizon. That was Ben's target date to ask Katy to marry him -- eight months after the night at the American Tap Room. He bought a ring, and over a cup of coffee asked Katy's mom, Pat Sellers, if he could marry her daughter. (Katy’s father died in 1995.)

"How did you ask?” Katy wanted to know.

"Well, I told your mom that you were the sweetest, most wonderful princess and I knew we were just perfect for each other and it would be an honor, ah, ah, if she would accept me as a son-in-law and if I could marry her daughter," Ben said.

He got an answer of "gosh yes" while she tried on her daughter’s diamond ring, creating momentary panic when she couldn’t remove it from her finger.

Katy was blushing and teary-eyed listening to Ben tell the story.

On Dec. 24, 2005, the couple left for New Hampshire to celebrate Christmas at his parents’ vacation lake house. That night, much against her will, Ben pulled Katy away from the fireplace and they went through 3-foot snow drifts, not stopping until they stood on the frozen lake. He had said he wanted a picture of them next to the lake. It was dark.

"So I get down on a knee and I said, ‘Princess, with all the gifts under the tree inside, the only gift I want this Christmas and for every Christmas is for you to be my wife.’"

Katy said she didn't hear a word he said. "It was just ‘wha, wha’ … I was just staring at the ring ... so he had to ask me twice.”

She said “yes” and slapped him on the shoulder, asking him what he was doing buying a diamond ring when he didn’t have a job. They hugged and laughed while sharing some tears.

Ben’s family left for Christmas Eve Baptist church services while Katy and Ben stayed behind, calling her mother and a few friends to tell them the news. When they later entered the church, word of their engagement already had arrived and people were whispering their congratulations as they went to their seats.

Photo: Bill Snead

Tara Shinn, of Centreville, arrived in a 50s look that caught at least one photographer's attention.

Katy said strangers were turning around in their pews while smiling, waving and blowing kisses.

Katy reminded Ben, “During a song, you were on one side of me and your mother was on the other and I look over and your mother is tearing up because she is so happy and so excited. And then I looked at you to say look at your mom and you’re tearing up.” Katy joined them and cried.

“When he asked me to marry him I cried, when I called my mom I cried and I don’t think I made sense. She said ‘Oh my God,’ and asked me to repeat what I’d just said. It was definitely a memorable night.”

A month later, Ben got a job.

“I don’t even know how this stuff works out … It’s just fate,” Katy said.

Ben and Katy were married May 12, 2007, on the lawn of the Belmont Country Club in Ashburn. About 160 friends and family members witnessed the occasion and stayed for dinner. A 12-piece Motown dance band accompanied Katy as she sang “From This Moment On” to Ben.

The couple spent seven days in Antigua on their honeymoon

Katy is a marketing manager for Cardinal Health in Reston. Ben describes himself as a very happy IT (information technician) computer guy for Prometheus Group in Chantilly.

The Primes now make their home in Leesburg.

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