Tarynne and James are married! No rain could ruin their special weekend. All of their friends and family got into Puerto Vallarta, Mexico the Wednesday before their scheduled wedding date, and had to last minute bump up the ENTIRE event a day early! It was a miracle, the venue was available, the hair and makeup artist was available, the guests were in town, (I was in town!), the caterers we open, ….it just WORKED! And it never rained once.
And, while that IS a cool story, and one to tell for the rest of their lives, it doesn’t even compare to all the stories that came before that with these two. They fell in love while traveling the world together. (As in, they bought one-way plane tickets first, THEN fell in love). It all started in 2012 when James interviewed Tarynne for work. “What do you want to do with you life?”….”I want to travel the world”. Tarynne tells the rest of the story:
“Three months later, James and I found ourselves in Las Vegas cashing in my free drink tickets at the Excalibur Hotel bar. Coincidentally, I was in Vegas trying to un-do everything domestic in me, and James happened to be there for his beloved Cougs. In the middle of the dingy, bleach and booze reeking bar he asked that same question one more time… “So really, what do you want to do with your life?” Me: “I’m buying a one way ticket to the furthest place on the planet from home.” James: “I’m coming with you,” he said too quickly and way too confidently. When we pitched our tent in Cape Town that first night in January 2013, we refused to acknowledge we were even dating. James had plans to return to Seattle in a few weeks, and I refused to return home a day earlier than my six-month leave of absence allowed. We knew our paths could, and would, likely go in very different ways.
We dove with sharks, rolled down dunes, navigated deltas in carved out trees, slept in the African bush atop boulders, pet cheetahs, held our breath while lions and elephants stomped around our tent, attended an elementary class in Malawi, idiotically risked our lives to swim and touch the edge of Victoria Falls, fought rabid monkeys with our tent poles, machete’d our way through the Bwindi forest to track mountain gorillas, almost killed ourselves while illegally climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, and started to say we were dating. James quit his job, and together we kept going.Somewhere in the middle of this 18-month epic adventure, we started to say we were in love. We’d witnessed each other in the most elated and vulnerable moments. We lost our minds, sanity, temper, wallets, way, and selves in front of one another. We cracked, got destroyed, and quit. We restarted, rebuilt something new, became smarter, stronger, and maybe even wiser. We watched and supported one another while we wildly chase our dreams, held each other’s hands during the uncomfortable and questionable moments, and reassured one another that somehow, with one hell of a story we would one day emerge together on the same path.”
After proposing on the top of Mt. Rainier, and Tarynne saying Yes, they now had the task of figuring out WHERE to get married! They had traveled to 35 different countries around the world together, so getting married in their backyard didn’t have a great appeal to them. They found what they were looking for at Las Caletas, a private beach in Puerto Vallarta only accessible by boat. This is where their friends and family would fly down to meet them and celebrate their marriage. The whole weekend was amazing, even with the rain coming a few days later. It was simply perfect.
So where does a world traveling couple go on their honeymoon!? Well, the answer to that was obvious: “the last frontier”. The only continent these two haven’t traveled to together was Antarctica. So that is where you will find them next! Have a great trip you two!! Congrats!
