Jay and Erin

Our Story...

The Meet

Fresh and high off of her graduation from Drake in the summer of 2009, Erin made her way to Rochester for pharmacy residency. In her wildest dreams she couldn't have imagined that very same summer would be where she would meet the one-and-only Jay Barreto, her future husband. At that time Jay was a mentor for one of Erin's co-residents and it was because of this connection that the two of them met during a casual summer outing at Whistle Binkie's on the lake. Jay, the always smooth fellow, leaned over and asked Erin, "Can I ask you a very personal question..." speculatively, Erin answered, "Sure?" to which he followed with, "How big is your purse, because I want to steal this Chimay (beer) glass?" One thing led to another and their beer cabinet and hearts quickly got a little fuller.

 

The Woo

Although they dated in pseudo-secret for a while so as to not make waves with Jay being on staff and Erin being a resident, it was during the second "official" date where Jay really hooked Erin. The first date was at 300 1st in Rochester and although a delicious dinner, Jay really upped the ante the second time around by taking Erin to Nosh in Lake City, MN. After an exceptional dining experience, Jay charmed Erin with a dusk walk on the pier on Lake Pepin where he had thoughtfully packed an extra coat for her to stave off the cold. His chivalrous gesture did not go un-noticed and kicked off a fantastic courtship.

 

The Ring

Fast forward a speedy five and a half years and and the happy couple returned to Nosh a site that had become the center of many special occasions for them. That day they had just finished a statistics exam as part of their clinical research training and decided it was time for a night away. Over dinner, Jay and Erin were chatting about relationships, and innocently, Erin said, "You know Jay, if you proposed, I probably wouldn't say no." Jay, the ever punny guy coming off the recent statistics studies said, "Oh really, what are my odds?," to which she responded, "I'd say definitely better than 50%. We've been together for quite a while and we do live together after all..." At that very moment, Jay pulled out the ring and said, "So you're saying if I pulled this ring out right now and asked you to marry me, you'd say yes?!" Not so smoothly Erin said, "Are you kidding me right now?! YES!" And the rest is history...Jay says, in retrospect, that there was no clear plan. He put the ring in his pocket, and when a set-up as easy as that came along, he just, "Had to capitalize!"

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