Let’s rewind to when it all began…it was within the first hours of the New Year in 2021 that the stars aligned and Erika matched with Hannah on a dating app. Indicative of who they are as individuals, Hannah had an entire poetic page about herself and what she was looking for in a partner on her profile, while Erika simply had a few sentences illustrating her love for pineapple on pizza and her puppy dog, Ma’Kai. As soon as they matched, Erika sent the first message in an attempt to woo Hannah. It must’ve worked!

They spent the next week Snapchatting, texting and FaceTiming every chance they had. Even staying up until the sun came up talking on the phone about anything, everything and even nothing at all. They had plans for a first date at the end of the week, but Hannah couldn’t wait another day! While visiting an alpaca farm with her friend, she proposed that they drive to Milwaukee so that they could move their first date up by one day. Hannah and Erika met in Milwaukee and the first date was like nothing they’d ever experienced before. There was an undeniable connection.

After that first date, it was hard to go a day without seeing each other. Luckily, they wouldn't have to worry about that for long because Hannah was only visiting family in Wisconsin when they met. Hannah convinced Erika to pack up the Jeep and move down to Florida where Hannah lived in an adorable tiny house.

On their way down, they stopped in North Carolina and explored the Great Smoky Mountains, their first National Park together. Planning for a future full of adventures together!

From the very beginning conversations, Hannah insisted that she would be living in a van someday soon and Erika either needed to be down for that or she needed to find a different life partner. While this intimidated Erika, Hannah’s drive to pursue the things she wants in life is ultimately one of the things Erika loves most about Hannah. Hannah is a dreamer and Erika credits Hannah for teaching her how to truly live life, not just survive it. Erika did, however, negotiate for a bus instead of a van because a van was just a little bit too small for Erika to live and work full time in with two cats and a dog.

With 1 year and 4 months of dating behind them, they moved into the bus together to begin traveling the country! Since living in the bus, they have been to 23 National Parks, 26 states, been on endless amounts of adventures, laughed until their face and stomachs hurt, and learned so much about themselves and each other. Their love for each other has grown each day…especially on the challenging days. And there are a lot of challenging days that come with life on the road.

In February of 2023, Hannah and Erika vacationed to Hawaii for a Norwex trip that Hannah earned. Erika proposed to Hannah on Oahu in front of a beautiful waterfall. And absolutely crushed it by setting up a secret photographer to capture the moment! They could finally start planning forever together. As if they weren’t already doing that from the first week that they started talking in January of 2021.

Hannah and Erika landed on Hawkesdene as their wedding venue for a number of reasons. A couple of those being that it incorporates a few core details from their beginning together…it has an alpaca farm on property, it’s in North Carolina and it has views that overlook the Great Smoky Mountains. They hope you can feel the love in the crisp mountain air as we come together to celebrate a new chapter for this beautiful couple - saying “I do” to spending a lifetime loving each other and finding adventure in everything.

By: Erika Stroik