About the bride
Tarah, 26, is a recent graduate from UAB where she received a Maters in Public Health with a concentration in Health Behavior. She spends a lot of her time volunteering at the 1917 Clinic where she works with the Education Director, Chaplin and nurses in preventing and testing for HIV. She hopes to one day work at an HIV clinic as a nurse, as a Public Health Officer or an HIV Educator for an organization that does work domestically and internationally. She is known for her love of animals and promotion of a vegetarian/vegan diet, running, playing intramural sports, baking, traveling, enjoying nature, playing chase with her cat, walking her dogs, taking pictures and spending time with her 3 favorite F's: family, fiance and friends. Tarah loves how talented Eric is and loves it when he plays his guitar and sings his songs for her and the fact that his songs linger in her head for days. Eric is a very giving and thoughtful person and will gladly *wink* make Tarah a delicious meal, pick her up from work when she is too tired to walk back home, and will challenge her mentally and spiritually so that she may grow. Tarah has found a wonderful companion, someone who shares similar interests with her, goofs off with her and who accepts her for the nerd she is.
About the groom
Eric, 26, grew up in the lands of West Michigan, chasing lightning bugs, playing roller hockey, and drawing. Lots of drawing. Today, Eric enjoys writing, singing, running, and of course spending time with his fiancee Tarah. Eric moved to Birmingham, Alabama after seeing Tarah at his favorite local pub. Their love grew over days, weeks and months, as well as over the internet, for it was Facebook that truly brought the two of them together, and Eric is very thankful for that. His favorite things about Tarah include, her smile, her laugh, and the odd nicknames she chooses to give him, like, hunny hunny hunny bunny bunny bunny.
How we met
While Tarah was up in Michigan for a funeral she decided to see some friends at New Holland Brewery before she had to go back to Birmingham. At the Brewery she caught a young man looking at her. She thought nothing of his stare and kept talking with her friends. After she left she received a text message from her friend Kalin. Kalin text her, "my friend thinks you're cute." Tarah text back, "even with this big pimple on my forehead?" and after Kalin text back that he did and that I didn't have a big pimple on my forehead I thought, Nice to know, but I am not turning around to go back there.
The next morning Tarah was on Facebook and noticed she got a message from some guy she did not know. He wrote her, "So I'm the suave guy who thought you were cute and didn't take the opportunity to chat with you. This is my pathetic attempt to say hello after the fact. Sorry I missed you. I'm Eric."
He then asked her in his next message if she wanted to get together for a beverage and had her at double Oreo shake.
They spent hours on Facebook writing each other long messages (so long that it wouldn't be accepted and had to be cut and pasted into two separate messages). Finally they started talking on the phone for hours on end, staying up until 4:00 a.m. Then it moved to Skyping and seeing each other while they talked. Then on November 12, 2009 Eric drove to Alabama to see Tarah. They finally had the opportunity to talk in person. Tarah walked back from class anxiously anticipating seeing Eric and when she got to her apartment Eric was there with his guitar waiting for her to walk in so he could play her a song he wrote.
The rest is history.