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PEPPER PIKE, Ohio
,
May 8, 2014
/PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Every couple of weeks, Kat packs up her car, leaves behind the horses and bees on her acreage in
Manitoba, Canada
and heads for the border. No stranger to
the United States
, Kat used to go weekend shopping in
North Dakota
, and traveled the states regularly. But for the past 17 months these trips have been much different for her. In fact, they have been life altering.Kat travels 4 hours to a farm in southeastern
North Dakota
to be with her new groom, Benji. The couple met in
May 2012
on the online dating site
, a niche site tailored to farmers, ranchers and country folks.Kat completed undergraduate studies in animal science and then completed her master's degree in poultry nutrition. She then started a small horse farm and honey production farm."My friends pushed me to join
because I was just going from home to work and back all the time," Kat explains. The country lifestyle was always prevalent in Kat's life even though she wasn't raised on a farm. "I always knew in my heart I would end up living in the country, so
seemed like a good fit for me."
was founded in 2005 by
Jerry Miller
, an advertising executive in the agriculture industry. Coining the tag line 'City folks just don't get it,' FarmersOnly now has over 1.5 million members, from both the US and
Canada
.The first gentleman that Kat met on the site was Benji, a fourth generation grain farmer in
North Dakota
. His farm produces corn, wheat, soy, and dry edible beans. He farms alongside his brother, and his retired parents still live on the farm. It was this way of life that made him realize he needed to make changes in where he was looking for love.On and off for the past 5 to 6 years, Benji had tried online dating with popular sites. "There are so many fake profiles on those sites and so many times where you never get a response back." So he turned to Google and stumbled across FarmersOnly.com. "The big thing I found about the people on FarmersOnly is that they are all genuine, down-to-earth people compared to the other sites out there."The first message Benji sent Kat on FarmersOnly was in May, 2012. They then spent a few months messaging and emailing each other back and forth until they decided to meet for the first time in August.Benji hitched up his handmade canoe, jumped in his truck, set his cruise control and made the 2 hour drive to
Grand Forks, ND
, the halfway point between their two homes. The couple took the canoe out on the water for the day and went out to eat afterwards.A few weeks later Kat made the trip to Benji's farm for the first time and met his family. By that time the couple communicated daily and their relationship started to bloom. "We took turns for who would come up and who would go down," Kat recalls.A little over a year after their first date in August, Benji and Kat decided to tie the knot. On
December 21, 2013
in Benji's hometown church, Kat's family from
Canada
sat together with Benji's immediate family and watched the couple say 'I do'.The temperature outside never climbed above 0 degrees. Kat Jokes, "I think we had the quickest outdoor pictures in history." Benji adds, "But the roads were clear and there was good visibility, so we really couldn't ask for more."For their honeymoon the couple took a break from the blistering cold
North Dakota
winter and headed to
Florida
for some deep sea fishing.They now plan to start a new generation on Benji's family farm. "The farming and country lifestyle is the perfect atmosphere to start and raise a family in," Kat says. "It's a luxury these days to be able to stay home with your kids."Kat and Benji join the growing community of farmers, ranchers and country folks who have found love on FarmersOnly in small towns all across
the United States
and
Canada
.
estimates it is now responsible for more than 2 marriages every week of the year.