We met in Brooklyn during the second lockdown, when it was just the wildest, strangest time to be going on dates. We sat there freezing in the cold back yard of a bar called The Holler, because you still couldn’t eat or drink inside. Anyone who dates in New York knows that it can be a deeply existential affair, so it’s wise to hold back a part of yourself to make it through the disappointments; a sort of armor. That’s the place in which we met, not looking for anything, never expecting to be the kind of people who do the marriage thing, sitting there cold in our own self-preservation armor.
And yet somehow, that day, someway there wasn’t a need for all the shielding. We talked and talked and talked and then it was 3am and it felt like we had known each other for our entire lives and maybe a few lives more too. Cut to a year later and we were deep in the jungle of Peru, so moved by the ayahuasca ceremony we started planning our wedding, imagining all the beautiful things we be able to share with all of you in a place so mystical and captivating that we didn’t want to leave.
Even though we haven’t been together for the longest time, life made sure to throw us through as many insane events as it possibly could, even in the first months of being together. From the hole that opened up in the ceiling above our bed the second day we moved in together to navigating family and life crises to hernia hospital visits and hundreds of rivers, mountains, oceans, and jungles in between. And through it all we’ve only felt more in love, more at peace, like we could make it through anything, be anything we’d like.
We both have lived lives where home was never just one place but many, and I think when we met we were both trying to figure out where exactly home was now, at this point in our lives when we’ve called so many places our home. That day we found a home in each other that will be there for the rest of our lives, a place we feel safe and happy and a home we feel so lucky to be able to share with all of you, in a country that warmed our hearts and inspired us more than many other places we’ve been.
Like Daniel Johnston said “True love will find you in the end” and lucky enough for us we managed to find each other in the beginning, or maybe kind of the early middle (you know what we mean). And we are so excited to keep on tripping together through life, with our heads in the clouds and our feet walking just barely enough on the ground to dance our way through the joys and the sorrows and everything in between. Thanks so much for being a part of our celebration of love and for being such an important part of our lives :) we can’t wait to see you in Peru!
Love,
Ceci & Noah Otero-Boyle
