How We Met
Before we can go into the story of how we met, we should tell you how we met the two people who were responsible for bringing us together, Melih and Ayfer.
Taylan met Melih when he first moved to Chicago in1999. Sadly, that’s all either of them remember about how they met.
The story of how Melis met Ayfer is much more interesting. The met while both were in New York City visiting friends over Labor Day weekend in 2004. This was shortly before Melis moved to Chicago. While out one night, they wound up standing in line outside a club together. As both were out with Turkish friends, when the two groups overhead others speaking Turkish, they said hello and began talking. Much to Melis’ surprise, she discovered that not only did Ayfer live in Chicago, where she was about to move, but Ayfer also worked in the Sears Tower, where Melis would soon be working. It’s as if they were fated to meet. They exchanged numbers, met up after Melis moved to Chicago, and quickly became close friends. It’s a good thing they did because…
…5 weeks after Melis moved to Chicago, Ayfer invited her to Seher’s birthday party. It just so happened that Melih was also a good friend of Seher’s and invited Taylan to go with him to her birthday party. Neither Melis nor Taylan really knew the birthday girl, but they both decided to go anyway. It was October 16, 2004. They were introduced at Rodan, a hip restaurant/bar in Bucktown. Neither of them was out looking for love that night, but somehow they found it. However, it was only after a group of them left Rodan, stopping briefly at a random house party and then moving onto Sound Bar, that Melis and Taylan really got to talking. At Sound Bar the sparks started to fly between the two of them and they got to know each other better. The following day Taylan called Melis to ask her out on their first date, which took place a day later. Taylan first took her to the Adler Planetarium to show her the spectacular view of Chicago from there since she was new to the city. Then he took her to Francesca’s, a cozy restaurant in Little Italy, where things continued to go well. Shortly thereafter, Taylan asked Melis to be his girlfriend and the rest, as they say, is history!
