2014 The early years. Most of Ashley and I’s courtship bookended my adult league hockey games. Escondido was on fire, but that didn’t stop the local rink from hosting a bunch of tired looking meat heads and one too-pretty-to-be-here young woman in the stands. The games must go on, I guess, and Iceoplex couldn’t disappoint the one fan that came out to watch. During the game, I sat on the bench and stared across the ice in disbelief, “What was someone so pretty doing here? Was she really here to see me, and by her own free will”? We won. Or Lost. Tied maybe. I don’t remember anything about the actual game that night. It's after the game that stays with me. We drove up a hill behind the ice rink that overlooked the fires dotting Escondido. Ashley smelled like winter apples and flowers. I, on the other hand, smelled only halfway clean, like sweat and cheap body wash. We talked, noting the contradicting devastation and beauty of the fire. Chance the Rapper yipped in the background. As we talked, I was falling in love with her sensitivity and empathy as much as her confidence and eldest sibling complex (to which I could definitely relate). The distant blaze glowed soft light on her face, painting shadows and highlighting previously unseen facial features. It felt wrongfully intimate, like it was a view I shouldn’t have been allowed to see so soon into the relationship. I couldn’t help but imagine us decades later in front of a fireplace, the fire shining that same warm light. I could feel myself falling in love, and I had to choose in a split second if that's what I wanted for myself, a twenty year old college student. I let myself fall. 2024 10 years later, picking a wedding venue in a new city, and that voice from the ice rink is still the same. “How could I be so lucky”? Perhaps less surprise, ten years in, but no less gratitude. Looking out the window while driving from hacienda to hacienda, venue to venue, looking for a wedding spot, and the gratitude overflowed. Merida is really one of the world's great cities. I wouldn’t call myself mystic. Open to the unknown? Sure. Crystals and burning cooking herbs? No. But there is a magic to Merida. Some say it's because of the impact site of the Chicxulub meteor (the dinosaur destroyer), that has radiated astral energy ever since its impact. Maybe it’s because Merida is a city built around and with Mayan ruins. The city has not forgotten its history, one that long precedes colonization, and it’s evident, even in passing. Maybe it's more practical, like all the old and colorful architecture. The identical building facades that leave little context to what is behind each door, turning each doorway into a little portal. Or the people: the older residents are dressed sharp, the young people are polite. I think it’s all intertwined, an *energy* if you will. This city has come to mean a lot to us. It’s a place that is very easy to imagine spending the rest of your life. We’d love to host you in this wonderfully unique place, celebrating life, love, and the forces that have brought Ashley and I together. Salud!