Most brides recall their hen night as harmless fun, but for Tarlie Silva, it sparked a love story no one saw coming.
It was September 2019 when Tarlie, from Kilmarnock, Virginia, headed to North Carolina for her hen’s party weekend away – a last hurrah before tying the knot with her partner of two years.
‘We were sat down for a drink and a guy came up to us and asked if it was a bachelorette and what we were doing,’ Tarlie told Daily Mail.
‘He told us that he was third wheeling and pointed at [another guy] Julio, and their other friend.’
What started as a passing introduction quickly became a night of dancing and laughter.
‘They ended up coming with us to the club. We just all danced,’ Tarlie said, adding that she connected with a female member of the group on Facebook and exchanged messages after the night out.
‘I sent them a picture of the wedding invitation and they said that they would come.’
While it’d been a fun night, Tarlie wasn’t sure the trio would actually attend.
‘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. Then my friend was on Instagram and saw that they had posted a picture golfing at a local country club and we were like, “oh wow, I think they’re coming.” They walked in about an hour after the wedding reception started.’
Tarlie (pictured right) met Julio (left) on her hen’s party and invited him to her wedding. She was surprised when he turned up – but loved that he danced with her mum and grandmother
By then, Tarlie had already shared the unusual story of her wedding guests with friends and family – so when Julio and his friends arrived, the atmosphere transformed.
‘They were like celebrities, we’d already told people that we had invited these people that we met and we just thought that it was such a funny story. Julio danced with my grandmother and with my mother, we all immediately ran up to take pictures with him.’
Despite all the excitement, Tarlie recalls that other than taking a photo with him, she ‘didn’t really speak to’ Julio.
Tarlie went on her honeymoon but, a month and a half later, faced the reality that her marriage wasn’t as it seemed. ‘Me and my husband at the time decided that the wedding was a mistake. We were no longer into each other anymore. It [the relationship] felt more forced than natural and we decided to split up.’
Just a week after separating, Tarlie received an unexpected message from Julio on Snapchat.
‘A week later Julio replied to a Snapchat story of mine about a can of ginger ale. 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.’
It took only a handful of online exchanges for something to click. ‘We continued to talk on Snapchat and realised that actually we had a lot in common,’ she shared.
‘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.’
After just six weeks with her new husband, Tarlie (pictured) knew her marriage was over. Not long after that, she received a message on Snapchat from Julio
‘We continued to talk on Snapchat and realised that actually we had a lot in common,’ Tarlie shares
The couple is now married and are parents to two young boys
By December 2020, Tarlie and Julio were engaged; the following April, they tied the knot, this time for keeps. Now, as parents to two young boys, Tarlie has reflected on the whirlwind that led her from cold feet at her first wedding to a happy, unconventional family.
‘Looking back I’ve had thoughts about whether I should have called off my first wedding when I had cold feet. I would have saved people a lot of heartache, time and money if I would have just called the wedding off. In my head I thought everyone has cold feet – you see that in movies and you hear about it all the time so I thought that it was a normal feeling.’
But had she cancelled, the whole adventure – and her marriage to Julio – likely never would have happened.
‘If I’d called the wedding off I would have never went on my bachelorette trip and me and my husband [Julio] never would have met. Even if we did meet on that bachelorette trip we didn’t really speak or communicate at all during that time. So even if the wedding got called off after that, and there was never a wedding for him to show up as a guest to them we wouldn’t have spoken either I don’t think. I think it really happened for a reason.’
For those who question the circumstances, Tarlie is refreshingly direct.
‘Maybe the whole situation was a little inappropriate to some people but I just don’t feel compelled to think that. When I invited them to the wedding I sent the invitation to the friend, I never added Julio on Facebook at the time. We hadn’t really spoken on the bachelorette trip. He was just invited on that communal invitation when I sent a picture of it, we only actually spoke after the wedding. I’m glad that it happened in the way it did.
‘I think it worked out how it should have worked out, we have a beautiful family, we have two little boys now and we’re super happy.’
From a chance encounter to happily ever after, Tarlie and Julio’s story shows that sometimes, the best moments in life don’t follow a script.
