Love in the age of the internet can sometimes be confusing and scary, but if you are open to it and lucky enough, it can lead to a beautiful love story. This is the story of how sliding into the DMs, a Yorkie named Chewie, and most of all commitment brought together two lovebirds from opposite coasts. The story is narrated by Ekanem.
You can follow Vinita (wife-to-be) @omgvinita, Preeth (husband-to-be) @itspreethkumar, and the Yorkie named Chewie (life of the party) @chewietheyorkieee
Follow us on Instagram for updates at https://www.instagram.com/chooselovepodcast
To share your story or let us know what you thought of the episode, email us at chooselovepodcast@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you!
Chat with us on FlickChat: https://flick.group/chooselovepodcast
Love in the age of the internet can sometimes be confusing and scary, but if you are open to it and lucky enough, it can lead to a beautiful love story. This is the story of how sliding into the DMs, a Yorkie named Chewie, and most of all commitment brought together two lovebirds from opposite coasts. The story is narrated by Ekanem.
You can follow Vinita (wife-to-be) @omgvinita, Preeth (husband-to-be) @itspreethkumar, and the Yorkie named Chewie (life of the party) @chewietheyorkieee
Follow us on Instagram for updates at https://www.instagram.com/chooselovepodcast
To share your story or let us know what you thought of the episode, email us at chooselovepodcast@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you!
Chat with us on FlickChat: https://flick.group/chooselovepodcast
Welcome to the Jews love podcast, a show that Chronicles the extraordinary love of ordinary people. Our hope is that the show will inspire us all to hashtag choose love. The show was presented by Ellen at era. Your digital bridesmaid were here to take your squad moments to the next level and help curate your bridal style so that you can focus on love. Love in the age of the internet can sometimes be confusing. Sometimes when you get a message from a stranger, it can seem really threatening, but sometimes it can also be the beginning of a beautiful love story. Preeth in Vanita met in a special way that they'll tell you about. Their story is all about how technology brought two people from a long distance together and how they included a special dog in their love. Take a listen. All right guys. So tell me how it is that you first met online.
Speaker 2:Um, I was living here in LA, uh, pursuing an acting career and I, you know, I used to shoot a lot of videos for a company called Busby there. They make a lot of viral videos. Um, so, and then Preeth was living in New Jersey area. So on June 20th, 2000 and what is it, 16? Um, I just received a comment on my Instagram and I was like, who the heck is this person? So apparently Preeth was on his sofa and New Jersey, just just on his day off. And he was scrolling through the internet and he happened to see this Buzzfeed video and I was playing a cat in the video and he, I guess liked it, fell in love immediately, I dunno, whatever. And um, he's kinda stalked me a little, found my Instagram from YouTube, then he sent me an Instagram comment. So that's where that happened. And the comment was very harmless. It just said, keep up the good work. Uh, you're, you're making Indian aunties and uncles proud. And that was it. And I saw it and I was just like, Ugh, God, another losers like sending me a comment. Cause like, you know, I don't know where people are sometimes in the world, they just send you comments, you know. So, um, I went ahead and looked at his page and there was, there was no pictures of him. It was like cars and I don't even know what. And I kept on scrolling down and there was one picture of like three guys and I said, Oh, maybe it's one of these, all three of them are pretty handsome. So I was like, okay, I can talk to one of these guys. So I replied to him, um, three hours later we had been texting nonstop. She told me that we were going to get married.
Speaker 1:So after that they called, texted and sent gifts across the country for four whole months until Vanita started getting frustrated with the delay.
Speaker 2:The reason why I was postponing this meeting was I knew that there were, it's a catch 22 if I were to go to Los Angeles and meet her and really fall even
Speaker 3:more in love with her, um, it would suck because I lived on East coast and she lived 3000 miles away. So I would be, it would suck that way and it would also suck if I went there. And, okay, I can say that, you know, you can get along with someone on FaceTime, you can get along with someone when you text message, phone call. But when you are face to face with the person, you may not like them. But I didn't want to have invested all this time for not,
Speaker 2:but they finally set a date to meet. And here's how it went down. I was super excited and nervous. Um, I got all cute and I went to the airport and um, I sat, I sat along these wall, this wall with a bunch of chairs and I was waiting for him. And then all of a sudden on the corner of my eye I saw this really tall, dark guy wiping his hands on his pants. And I was like, Oh my God, there's priests. That's, that's the man I'm probably gonna marry. Cause like he's so nerdy and goofy and what, why does needs a paper cowl? So it turns out it was him and he was absolutely handsome in person. We gave each other a hug and I, and he'd never been to LA before, so I was just Uber slash tour guide. So I took him to every single tourist spot like rodeo drive and, and Santa Monica. So like I took him to all the main spots and then, yeah, so we spent the day together and after that we definitely really liked each other even more. So we made a pact that every month one person would get on a plane and fly to the other person. So he would come to LA or I would go to New York. And then after about 16 months or 17 months of doing this, we were like, you know what, we, we, we love each other. We want to get married, like someone's got to move. So I really want to pursue acting. So I was like, please move to LA because this is where I need to be. And he was in sales at the time, so he quit his job, sold everything. And then the three of us took an eight day trip across the country and we, we, we arrived in LA and it's been almost two years since we've been in LA together. Now the third person is our dog. His name is chewy. He is a very handsome smash diva. Preeth of Anita taught me a lesson about how love is really about commitment.
Speaker 3:So I always simplified love as being able to go home to be being able to go home and be happy. Um, you know, whether it's someone coming home to you and that makes you happy or are you going home to someone that makes you happy or both of you guys going home together and that makes you happy. And the great thing about Vanita is it's the hardest thing was when we were doing a long distance relationship, we were doing zing FaceTime. So in order to maintain this relationship, we actually had to dedicate our time. And by that I mean not going out, not, you know, spending time with our friends, um, to make time, you know, before work, during work, after work to FaceTime with one another. So I knew that in her I would find, I had found rather true happiness. So I loved, I loved every second that I was with her and I loved every second that I spend with her.
Speaker 2:Of course, wanting a engagement ring. Um, I kind of just brought up the idea like, Hey, like do you know anyone that does jewelry and this and that. And he was super onboard and he was like, yeah, we can start looking around. So pretty early on, pretty early on, we both started like talking to people about, about jewelry and like learning about the process of getting a ring. And, um, six months, six months went by after that and we had no luck. But I actually stumbled upon a very unique vintage jeweler here in Los Angeles. And I, I, I'm someone who likes unique things. I like'em to stand out a little bit and I like, I value things that are kind of older and have a story behind them. So I found this jeweler and I, I visited him by myself and I fell in love with, with a ring and I called grief and he was in New York at the time and I was like, Hey babe. Like I think I found something that I really love. And he was like, Oh my God, finally, this is great. So I put the him in touch with the doula and then[inaudible] took it from there. We were visiting my parents and I'm in Los Angeles. My brother was there, my mom, my dad and Preeth. And I saw my father. He had previously busted his chops before, uh, when he first met Preeth because my dad is kind of like a smart ass and he just wanted to make sure that this guy was right for me. So we were all gathered around in the living room. My mom was super excited. I think she like knew that group was going to say something important and my dad was like on his phone or kind of paying attention, kind of not. So Preeth was super nervous and Preeth was like, well, Hey guys, no, I just, I'm really happy with your daughter and I really would like your permission and blessing to marry her. And my mom was speechless. She just kind of nodded her head at the edge of her seat while my father was silent. Harry frequency say something. No, you can continue on. Then once you tell the story, I'll, I'll give like insights into what? Yeah, so then, so then my dad was silent and we were like all looking at each other like, um, did he not hear what Preeth said? All of a sudden my dad looks up from his phone and he's like, did you guys know that tigers are extinct in India? And all of us looked at each other and we're like, what the heck was he not paying attention just now during that entire, the speech that preaches gave and then I got upset. I was like, dad, what are you doing? Like Cristus asked you a question and he was like, what? What was the question? And then my mom got mad at him too. She was like, he just asked, you know, like all this argument went down and then finally my was like, yeah, yeah, okay, that's good. So at that point they had the ring and they had the blessing. But when was the engagement? Vanita didn't know when it was going to happen, but if question was finally popped, I didn't know
Speaker 3:I want to do it in August just because it was my niece's sweet 16 and I didn't want to one up her sweet 16 so I was like, all right, we're going to, we're going to spend time in September. We're going on a trip to Monterey. So I'll ask before then I got to, I got everything done and the day that I actually was flying to the airport, I got to take it because I didn't have my, a registration with me. So I wanted to do it at lax because that's where I met her. And growing up being like a child who loves movies, seeing that like airport, I always thought that was somewhere that I wanted to live and that's why I proposed to her there.
Speaker 2:We got engaged in December 10th of that year. So when's the wedding? We're not actually having a wedding. We are super nontraditional. So we, we've already decided that we're probably just gonna allow, we've already told my parents and they don't really care. They're pretty chill.
Speaker 3:One of our first conversations was you want to have a large wedding. And I was like, no, I don't really like the idea of having so much attention placed on myself. And I was lucky enough that she agreed with it.
Speaker 2:So the elopement has some special details which you would expect from two creative and individual people. They plan to elope in 2020 and they're keeping the details secret mostly to make sure that the family honors their desire to have a small wedding.
Speaker 4:We do want to go to a mystery Island and we're going to keep that Island mystery and Eric, but it's tropical and beautiful and has fantastic one to that.
Speaker 5:We do have a favorite Island. Um, but like Craig said, you know, we would like to keep that private but it is very tropical and beautiful, clear, warm water. What I see is definitely like maybe half in the water, half not and just kind of standing there like in the ocean cause I am obsessed with the ocean and I think I love anything flowing. So white flowy dress or something flowery and Island D I have super long, thick hair so I think it would be really beautiful. It was just down and wavy and kind of wet even. I just want to have some vows personally with, with Preeth and maybe he wants to have some with me. Um, just so that we can let each other know, you know, what we need to each other and kind of like what promises we will make for our lives together. It
Speaker 1:sounds like it's going to be beautiful and we can only wish, it's everything that breathes and Benito wished for. So there you have it. The story of how sliding into the DMS, a Yorkie named Tuohy and most of all commitment made a special love story. You can find Vanita on Instagram at OMG. Vanita, you can find two E at chewy, the Yorkie with three E's, and you can find it Preeth at it's Preeth Kumar, if you want to follow more of their story. This has been the choose love podcast, a show that Chronicles the extraordinary love of ordinary. Our hope is that the show will inspire us all to hashtag choose love. The show is presented by Ellen at era. Your digital bridesmaid were here to take your squad moments to the next level and help here at your bridal style so that you can focus on love like the podcast. Make sure to share it with your friends. It's available on all major podcast providers. Just source for the choose love podcast. I'm McKenna Bina and thanks for listening.