It's happening!!! A Provencal dream come true. We are so happy to have you join us by the lavender fields at the Bastide de Barattes for our wedding!

Our love story started at a location I would later come to find Erik absolutely loathed but I absolutely loved in my time (one of the many things I would come to find out we did not have in common: a club! :) I was living in Chicago in 2013 when I decided to surprise my cousin, Rosie, for her birthday in March. The plan was a night out with friends and fam dancing (something we loved doing pretty regularly). Upon getting to Tampa, I started getting ready and contacted my cousin, Angie, for details on where everyone was so I knew where to meet up. Angie, as she had done numerous times in the past with random boys, told me there was a guy out for Rosie's birthday who saw my picture and thought I was cute. I knew where this was going but didn’t get a second to voice my protest before I heard a guy's voice on the other end introducing himself as Erik and telling me that he looked forward to meeting me. I gave him a flat response and did not share his excitement. Erik had just recently moved to Tampa after visiting several times as a trainer for the company he worked for. One of the people he trained was my cousin, Rosie, and they became fast friends. So much so that he had been invited several times to after-work happy hours with her, Angie and several work friends before being invited out for Rosie's birthday. I ended up getting to Jackson's Bistro, made my way through the crowd to the birthday group and greeted the birthday girl. Shortly after, I ended up next to a guy who I would have considered "my type". He introduced himself and we start chatting (maybe a little flirting on my end now that I realize I might be a little interested). I didn't anticipate much given I was only in town for a few days but I figured it would be fun to talk to a cute guy for the night and maybe hang out with him before I left. Rosie, however, decided to proclaim while we were talking that she KNEW we'd get along, and then proceeded to walk away grinning. I even let him in on some of my classic dance moves, not caring if I looked like an idiot or not because, hey, I was only there for the weekend :). The night of dancing and intermittent chatting came to a close and I left without him having asked for my number. I figured it was just a fun night of flirting; he thought I was meeting up with everyone at another location after leaving and was bummed to find out that wasn't the case. The next day, Angie let me know that she had spoken to him and he was upset that he didn't ask for my number, so Angie quickly gave him my number. For a change, I didn't mind that she had made that executive decision :) Erik called me two days later, assuming I had already flown back to Chicago. When I told him I was still in Tampa, he bemoaned the fact that he hadn't called me sooner to ask me out. He officially asked me to dinner and we ended up at Datz in South Tampa the next day. Conversation just flowed between us! While he can basically talk to anyone, anywhere, I am a little quieter at first until I get to know a person. Not the case with Erik. We ended up closing down Datz and decided to get late night cocktails and continue our conversation. After closing down that bar, and still not wanting to end the night, we end up talking in my parent's driveway until 5:30 in the morning! He actually had to work that day but asked if he could see me again before I left to which I said yes. I had to see if this was a fluke! He wanted to take me out for dinner that night. Knowing what I know now about his sleeping needs, I don't know how he found the energy to work and go out after but he did :) We had another great date filled with a lot of talking (we are lovers of the spoken word) and at the end decided we'd continue to talk once I was back in Chicago and see what happened. There was a definite spark and I was definitely interested :) Once I was back in Chicago, we spoke or video chatted basically every day (and Erik is not a phone guy). The rest is history...