Frederic Bazin and Elyna Kudish.
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Who: Frederic Bazin, 39, IT consultant; Elyna Kudish, 35, wedding planner
Location: Montreal
Relationship status: together since 2012
First tango in Montreal
Elyna: We met at a salsa social, which are these get-togethers for people who take lessons. I was a beginner.
Fred: I had been dancing for many years. I saw this girl in a striped shirt and I asked a friend of mine who ran the social to tell me who she was.
Elyna: When he approached me, I was surprised. More experienced dancers usually don’t ask beginners to dance. I said yes. He was obviously a way better dancer, but he made me feel comfortable. He wasn’t trying to show off.
Fred: I got her name, but I didn’t get a last name or contact info. I spent the next two months going to all the different clubs and socials hoping to bump into her. When I finally did I made a beeline.
Elyna: Salsa socials aren’t about picking up. It’s considered bad form to dance more than one song, but he kept asking for one more dance.
Meet the parent
Fred: On our first real date, we went for a drink. We had long conversations about life, music, travel. I really wanted to see her again, but I had a big secret that I didn’t tell her on the first date
Elyna: Nor the second, nor the third, nor the fourth. …
Fred: I have two kids. At the time, my eldest was four and my youngest was less than one. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to scare her away.
Elyna: When you meet in your thirties, it’s like, I assume you’ve been around the block a few times – it’s not something that you necessarily want to talk about.
Fred: One day we were texting. I said there’s something I need to share with you. I didn’t even have time to finish typing before she wrote back, “you have a kid.” I said, “Actually, I have two.”
Elyna: I guess it was intuition.
Falling in love – literally
Fred: Early on I asked if being married was important to Elyna and she said yes, if we were going to be together in the long term, we were going to be married.
Elyna: For me, it wasn’t about having a wedding, it was about being married. Like, are we just passing time here?
Fred: One night we were out at one of our favourite restaurants when I started feeling weird. I got up to go to the washroom.
Elyna: Fred is this beautiful chocolate man and right in front of my eyes he turned khaki. As soon as he got up, he fainted. He was out for 30 seconds, which is a really long time.
Fred: When I opened my eyes I saw her face and there was just so much love in her eyes. I knew right then that I would ask her to marry me.
Elyna: Our wedding was a beautiful, intimate celebration. And of course, we salsa’d.