our story

Maybe it was the rain that drove them both into the bookstore, or maybe it was fate. The hours Ted and Sheena spent browsing in the Strand on that cold October night were not unlike the preceding weeks they'd spent in New York -- to say nothing of their mounting years on Earth -- passing each other again and again like ships in the night.

That all ended when they entered the same narrow aisle from opposite ends, each looking for a somewhat obscure A.J. Arberry translation of the work of the Persian poet Rumi. Sheena, exploring her Iranian roots, laid her hand on the book first. Then Ted, eager to finish his research for an article at his magazine internship, reached for the very same tome, his still-damp sleeve dripping onto Sheena's.

Their heads turned; their eyes met. Each wanted the book badly, but just as badly wanted not to offend the attractive stranger standing before them in the cramped aisle.

Admitting that Sheena reached the book first, Ted relented, joking, "I don't know if there's Rumi 'nuff for both of us in here."

Sheena fell instantly in love, and Ted loved her back, and the rest is history.

... Just kidding. We met on Match.com.

Which was romantic in its own way. Before we became "Ted and Sheena," we were MinnesotaReader and Sheena2121, two young dreamers just trying to make it in the Big Apple or possibly two 50-year-old serial killers; there was no way to be sure until we met for drinks at a wine bar in the Lower East Side.

As it turned out, we didn't stay in New York very long. Ted moved to California for grad school after just a few dates with Sheena, and he worried that he'd never see her again. But Sheena came to visit -- first in San Francisco, and later in Minneapolis, which led Ted to find a reason to return to New York not long after.

Soon enough, Sheena moved back to her native California for a new teaching adventure in San Jose. Since then, Ted and Sheena have followed each other all over the country and beyond, including a year together in Puebla, Mexico.

With our friends and family standing witness, we can't wait to begin the next chapter of our lives together as husband and wife.

-Ted & Sheena