Eric and Taylor met via Hinge on November 9th, 2021. Like all great love stories, theirs began with a conversation about a particularly memorable bathroom experience Taylor had had in Kenya, involving minimal amounts of toilet paper and a very disgruntled goat. Eric was hooked! Talking to each other started to become the best part of both of their days.

But there was a little hiccup. They realized that even though both of their Hinge settings were set to match with people within 10 miles of where they each lived, Hinge must have had a glitch that night and matched them even though they lived over 2 hours away from each other. But you know when you just have a feeling that something is right? And easy? And that the person you’re talking to just “fits” so seamlessly? (Not an easy feat in general, let alone in the dating app world). They just felt it in their bones. So after nearly two months of FaceTimes and phone chats and texts and gifs, Eric knew it was time to meet in person. Taylor was content to live in their safe FaceTime bubble basically indefinitely, worried that this all seemed too good to be true. But Eric was confident that it would be even better once they met for real. Though Taylor wasn’t as sure, she decided to take the leap and agreed to meet up that New Years Eve. So, on December 31st, 2021, she began the 2.5 hour trek from New Jersey to Long Island.

If you’re thinking that this is now starting to sound like the premise of a murder documentary…yeah, somewhere along the Belt Parkway, this occurred to Taylor, too. And as we always say when we’re telling this story: kids, don’t try this at home. But not to worry — as an avid murder doc watcher herself, Taylor, of course, shared her location with 4 of her friends, along with Eric’s name, phone number, address, and place of work just for good measure. Her intuition is what kept her going, though - she just knew in her heart that this was something different, and he was worth taking a chance on. Their first kiss was that night at midnight during the ball drop, which sounds romantic, and it probably would have been if Taylor hadn’t still been in high-alert-making-sure-Eric-wasn’t-a-murderer-mode. So even though it was full of lots of giggles, it was obvious that night that Eric was right — they were even better in person.

Their visits were filled with walks and cuddles and movie-watching and cooking their favorite meals. New specifically to gluten free cooking, the first thing Taylor attempted to make for them was gluten free waffles. “Waffles are waffles,” she thought. “What could go wrong?” Turned out, lots. They still don’t know how it happened, but whatever came out of the waffle iron that day was flatter than a pancake. And crunchier than a tortilla chip. So they laughed very hard, called them “wachos” (waffle nachos), and Eric ate every last bite. It was the beginning of the unique at-home feeling they found every time they were with each other that they knew, despite the miles, was worth fighting for.

That meant that just a little over a year later when Eric was offered a job on the Gastroenterology Clinical Research team at Duke, it wasn’t a question that they would make the big move together. Leaving their family and friends was, and still is, the hardest part of that decision. But knowing that it was too good of an opportunity to pass up, they decided to go for it—a recurring pattern in their relationship thus far. They moved into a little townhouse in Durham, the first place that was really “theirs” together, and even now very few days go by when Taylor doesn’t say, “I love our house.” It’s her favorite place to be. And it’s also the place where Eric realized she was the one he wanted to share his life with forever.

He bought the ring on Thursday, July 20th, 2023 and planned to wait for her birthday that was coming up on August 3rd. Two days later, Taylor had just come back from a work trip in the Philippines, and Eric and she were volunteering at a health fair for Duke at a local church. That night, they got take-out from their favorite place and watched one of their favorite movies, a perfect evening by their standards. Taylor had made it to 9pm, which felt like a huge accomplishment considering her jet-lag, and finally said, “Babe, I have to go to bed.” And Eric said, “You can’t go to bed yet.” And Taylor (slowly starting to panic) said, “…why?” And Eric said, “Because I have to do something.” He took her hands and kissed her and started crying. And Taylor (fully panicking now) said, “Oh my gosh, are you okay?!” And then he got down on one knee and said the words Taylor has replayed in her mind every day since, “Will you marry me?” And the rest is history.

And so now we look forward to celebrating this love story with you, our very favorite people, next September in the state we now call home. We are thankful to each and every one of you for being part of our story. 💙

Registry