"We should get married here" - Danielle's catchphrase during our 2019 Guatemala trip. Guatemala is one of our favourite countries we have had the privilege of exploring. It only seemed fitting to give our family and friends an excuse to travel and experience the culture and colours of Antigua through our wedding! Despite a recent surge in popularity, Antigua, Guatemala, has always been outrageously beautiful. This Central American secret, which was devastated by an earthquake in 1773, has been in recovery ever since - but there’s a new swagger to this city of Spanish colonial bones, impossibly gorgeous baroque churches, cloistered patios, and toppled saints of stone and stucco. The “Land of Eternal Spring’, so named for its year-round temperatures of a balmy average of 27 degrees and biodiverse landscapes, makes for a year-round vacation destination. November is the beginning of the dry season, when the lush green vegetation is accented by sunny and clear weather.

Kaio and I went to the same film program at Capilano University in 2011. We didn't have the same classes, and never really crossed paths. Kaio was a studious 19 year old who took school seriously, wore a toque everyday (hiding his luscious brown locks), and spent his evenings working at the Crab Shack on Dollarton Highway in North Vancouver. I was on the tail end of my Vancouver club rat days, did not take school seriously, and was more focused on my social life... Kaio and I have spoken about how we would see each other from time to time on the bus, or in the common areas around school, but never really gave each other the time of day - that is until one fateful night at an Irish pub in Gastown. The Blarney Stone to be exact. A mutual friend of ours, (lets call him Miles) coaxed me into coming out to the bar on a sunny Friday evening. I had just come home from a solo Europe trip, was broke, and not really in the mood to socialize that night. Miles was very convincing - almost pleading with me to come out that night - telling me some friends from school would be there. Kaio showed up with a cousin from Switzerland. Miles introduced us for the first time. "This is Kaio" he said. I was confused because I thought 'Kaio' - a name I had heard lots throughout the year, was the guy in our program from Kazakstan. It was then that I realized the tall, dark haired Disney prince looking guy standing in front of me was 'Kaio' this whole time! hahaha. It turns out we had many mutual friends who always spoke highly of him - but for some reason I had the name attached to an entirely different person. (The guy from Khazakstan's name was SMILE) We continue to laugh about this story to this day. Kaio had such a warm presence about him that night. He was so kind and outgoing, and made me feel like the only girl in that bar that night. After a couple hours of drinking and dancing, Kaio knocked over a pint of Guinness, laughing as it left a dark brown stain on his white t-shirt. It was right then and there that I had a feeling this wouldn't be the last time I see this man laugh over a spilled drink.

The first thing I (Kaio) did the next day was call and apologize to said "Miles" for hitting it off with the gal who HE had brought to the Irish pub. Oops. Since then, Danielle moved into the North Burnaby apartment I shared with Darren, she scared him off eventually and we lived together happily in that cheap apartment in the Burnaby Heights. Like every cliche couple, our first big commitment together was adopting a pet. A very needy and vocal Siamese cat we named Siggi. He was supposedly found munching on donuts at the Creston Tim Hortons. We both have had the opportunity to travel extensively throughout our 20's - for both work and pleasure. From getting parasites in Cambodia; to being emergency smuggled across the Mozambican border with no passport.... we lived it up both together and apart - but always checked in to share our wild stories with each other, no matter the distance. When 30 hit, the whole floor beneath our apartment burned down, which literally lit the fire under our butts to take that next big step and buy a condo together. We found our little nest in the sky in 2021, only 5 minutes down the road from our original apartment. Siggi needed a friend, so we added a little grey cat named Billie to the mix, who Danielle adopted while filming a movie in Prince Rupert. On the 4th of July in 2023 (and even though I still felt it was too soon) I brought a 100 year old ring to our campsite at the end of the Indian Arm Inlet on a kayak trip. I proposed to my girlfriend of 12 years and asked her to marry me. First thing she said was "are you sure?" In 2019 we spent 2 weeks traveling in Guatemala with our friends Nik & Karly and we both fell in love with this country. It is such an underrated place to travel. The colours are as vibrant as our relationship, and the the volcanos are as explosive as Danielle's personality.. It's a place that speaks to who we are, and we cannot wait to share those experiences with our family and friends in beautiful, historic, Antigua!