Welcome to our wedding page! Though we have had to postpone our celebration again due to the pandemic, we very much look forward to celebrating with our loved ones in May 2022.

Our story began late on December 31, 2015 at a New Year’s Eve party. Grace had recently moved to the Chicago area, where she met all of her friends through a Meetup.com group, and the group was attending a dressy/snazzy event hosted by the Chicago Alumni chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi at an art gallery. Eric and his line brother also attended the event, and it just so happened Eric had also been affiliated with the same Meetup.com group after moving back to the Chicago a few years prior. The woman that ran the Meetup group introduced Grace and Eric about an hour before the New Year and they hit it off pretty well. They chatted, danced, took their first picture together, and eventually exchanged numbers. The next day Eric called Grace, where they continued to get to know each other and set up their first date, and they have been dating ever since.

The proposal happened at the Chicago International Salsa Congress (CISC), which is a huge 4-day Latin dance convention that includes workshops, performances, and dancing. Grace was performing 3 times during the weekend and Eric decided to take advantage of the situation, knowing dancers are completely dressed up, including makeup, with their friends, and on a natural high of performing in front of a huge crowd of people. After Grace’s final performance, Eric recommended that she locate her team so they could take pictures, hoping they would use the backdrop of the pretty fountain in the front of the Westin O’Hare lobby. Grace steered Eric all around the first floor of the hotel looking for the perfect picture, all the while skipping the desired location. Finally, Grace gave in and headed back to the lobby fountain, where many of the dance teams from their studio began to congregate and the planned proposal started to take shape. One of the event photographers took pictures of Grace’s dance team and Eric asked the photograph if he could take a couple pictures of him and Grace. Finally, the scene was set, Eric and Grace were in front of the fountain and surrounded by friends. The photographer took a couple of pictures, then Eric turned to Grace and straight lost it. Sobbing so much he had to whisper the beginning of the proposal in her ear, he then made it to his knee, and put the ring on the right index finger-- oops! It was very emotional for them. They loved that so many people from their studio were there to witness. Grace was caught completely off guard!! A few weeks prior, one of their friends asked whether she thought Eric would propose at Congress, and Grace responded, "Oh no, not a chance." Boy was she wrong.

Our wedding plans were disrupted by the pandemic, so we had a Zoom wedding in the Chicago Women's Park on our originally scheduled day. Our officiant and immediate families were present on Zoom, and both sides of the family got to meet each other for the first time virtually! We got married at the crossroads of a pandemic and an uprising. The city of Chicago was shut down and most businesses were closed due to the pandemic (we bought all our wedding gear online or at Target). There was nationwide outrage over the death of George Floyd, with major protesting in downtown Chicago, and the city went on curfew a few hours after the wedding due to looting and civil unrest. But if we could get married through this, we'll make it through anything! And we're excited to finally celebrate with you all and renew our vows near the 2 year anniversary of our wedding day!