Bales Wedding on 7/3/21 at Froggsong Gardens on Vashon Island

Music licensed from - The Music Bed

How did you guys meet?: Erika and Tom met as teachers in San Antonio, Texas. We were part of a teaching program called Teach for America. After a particularly rough week at school, all the teachers met up at a restaurant. Tom and several of his friends were going to take a drink and Tom began counting down in Hungarian. Erika, not knowing why she was hearing Hungarian at a bar in Houston, turned to Tom and asked "what did you just say"? Erika's family emigrated to the US during the 1950s from Hungary and Tom lived there in college. It was meant to be!

Tell us about the proposal!: I woke Erika up the day before and told her to pack her bags because we were going on a trip. She didn’t believe me, closed her eyes and flipped over to go back to sleep. I played the first part of a voicemail on my phone from her boss Doug and she knew I wasn’t kidding. We packed our bags and went to Sea-Tac. Up to that point, all Erika knew was that we were taking a plane to O’Hare. As we were getting ready to board, they asked to see our passports. Erika turned to me with gigantic eyes and I gave her a book about French phases. We then went to Paris (during the yellow vest protests) and I proposed to her under an empty Eiffel Tower. We had planned to go to dinner after, but because of the uprising, we celebrated back at our boarded up hotel!

Why did you choose your venue?: Erika love love loves greenery and gardens. We want our families to get a true PNW experience and take the ferry. We wanted a beautiful venue with lots of flowers.

What are you most excited to see in the video?: Erika - watch our vows and see all of our friends/family celebrate | Tom - I'm excited to watch the ceremony and see a bunch of things I didn't know were happening

When and where's the honeymoon?!?!: We're heading to the Amalfi Coast in Italy a few days after!

Venue - Froggsong Gardens
Photographer - Joanna Monger
Videographer - Best Made Videos®
Coordinator - New Creations Weddings
Floral and Decor - Herban Design Studio
DJ - Magnolia Rhapsody
Hair - Dawn Marie Artistry
Makeup - Shannon Binz