‘If I’d called the wedding off, I would have never gone on my bachelorette trip… And my husband and I would have never met.’
Tarlie Silva, 33, never expected to meet the love of her life on a girl’s night out – especially because she was already engaged to another man.
But, as fate would have it, she met the future father of her children on her hen do. It might not be your traditional fairytale, but it’s one hell of a story nonetheless.
To set the scene, it’s September 2019 and Tarlie, a photographer from Virginia, is out with her friends in North Carolina, celebrating her impending nuptials.
‘We were sitting down for a drink, and a guy came up to us and asked if it was a bachelorette and what we were doing. He told us that he was third wheeling and pointed at who is now my current husband, Julio, and their other friend,’ she recalled.
The two groups decided to join forces and ended up spending the night together, clubbing and dancing.
Before they parted ways, Tarlie exchanged details with a few people in the group – what’s a night out without new Facebook friends?
And when she woke up to a message from one of the guys thanking her for such a fun time, she decided to send over a picture of her wedding invitation as a joke, inviting him and his friend along to the reception.
To her surprise, they said they were keen and seemed excited to drop by at the reception, which was taking place a month later.
They were like celebrities — it was such a funny story
‘On the morning of the wedding, we hadn’t heard any updates. I thought that maybe they’d just agreed [to come] but they didn’t plan on doing it,’ Tarlie explained.
But then, her friend spotted a picture on Instagram of the pair golfing at a local country club. And sure enough, an hour after the wedding reception started, the two men strolled in.
Interestingly, Tarlie had ‘barely spoken’ to Julio on her hen do – but during the reception, it was clear that he was an instant hit with her family.
‘Julio danced with my grandmother and with my mother, and we all immediately ran up to take pictures with him.’
You’d think this is where the story would come to a close. But no – that was only the beginning.
Some say it’s inappropriate, but we’re meant to be
Just six weeks after tying the knot, Tarlie and her then-husband decided to call it quits after realising that their two-year-long relationship had ‘fizzled out.’
‘We were no longer into each other anymore. It [the relationship] felt more forced than natural, and we decided to split up.’
Looking back on that moment in time, Tarlie explained that she thought ‘everyone has cold feet,’ and that it was a ‘normal feeling.’ In a way, she wonders if she should have called off the wedding altogether, ‘I would have saved people a lot of heartache, time and money.’
But maybe it all happened for a reason?
Soon after she split from her long-term partner, Julio swiped up to reply to Tarlie’s Snapchat story, and the pair hit it off over messages after ‘realising that they had a lot in common.’
‘I don’t think Julio thought that I was still happily married [when he messaged me] because we were friends on Snapchat, and when you break up with somebody on your story, you kind of make it obvious,’ Tarlie explained.
The connection was undeniable, and Julio, a commercial fisherman, didn’t waste any time – ‘After about a week or so of talking on Snapchat, he asked me if I was interested in a double date with his sister and her boyfriend, and I said yes.
‘We met halfway in Virginia Beach and we’ve been together ever since.’
We have a beautiful family — we’re super happy
The couple were engaged just a year later, tying the knot in April 2021. They now share two children, and despite their unique love story, they’ve never looked back.
‘Maybe the whole situation was a little inappropriate to some people, but I just don’t feel compelled to think that,’ Tarlie noted.
‘When I invited them to the wedding, I sent the invitation to the friend; I never added Julio on Facebook at the time. He was just invited on that communal invitation when I sent a picture of it, we only actually spoke after the wedding.’
It’s truly remarkable to Tarlie that if she had decided to call off the wedding, her entire future would look different.
‘I would have never gone on my bachelorette trip, and my husband [Julio] and I never would have met. I think it really happened for a reason.’