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Jeff Kinzie and Erin Byrd met on a blind date that didn’t go exactly as planned. Their mutual friend, Ronnie, was supposed to meet them at Chili’s.

Byrd knew Ronnie through classes at GTCC, and Kinzie played soccer with him. Ronnie knew both his friends were getting over failed relationships, and thought they might hit it off.

“I didn’t have much of a social life. I was kind of at a low point,” Kinzie recalls.

But as Jeff Kinzie pulled into the restaurant parking lot, Ronnie called to say he was sick. Kinzie was on his own.

Erin Byrd had talked to Ronnie earlier, and insisted a friend go with her to meet Kinzie at the restaurant.

Despite their apprehension over his absence, Kinzie and Byrd’s date went so well, they went ice skating a few nights later. Byrd recalls the spark she felt when they held hands on the rink. Kinzie now says it was part of his plan — to take her on a date that would force them to get closer.

Still, Byrd was cautious. She had been in an abusive relationship before meeting Kinzie, and she wanted to make sure this one would be different. And it was.

She recalls the dozen roses he brought for one of their first dates.

“I was like, 'This guy is for real, because no guy has ever treated me like this,’ ” Byrd says.

“I didn’t feel any fulfillment in life, until I met Erin,” Kinzie says.

He finally asked Byrd if she would be his girlfriend after a month of dates.

Then he asked for their first kiss.

Afraid of getting hurt again, Byrd hesitated.

But Kinzie knew she was the one.

“I just knew right away ... we clicked so well,” he says. “All the chemistry that we had together — it was like a no-brainer.”

So, after three months of dating, Kinzie proposed on Jan. 6, 2009. He rented a cabin in Gatlinburg.

“It was cold, so I figured we’d have to get close again,” he jokes.

He told Byrd he needed to do something in the bedroom. As she watched television, Kinzie, an EMT, donned his fire gear, and lit about 200 candles to spell out “Marry Me?” on the bedroom floor.

Just as Byrd started to get impatient, he opened the door, and invited her inside.

She saw the candles, and started to cry.

“He said, 'Ever since I met you, you changed my life,’ and then he asked me (to marry him),” she recalls.

Byrd and Kinzie, both 25, are working to save money for their wedding.

Byrd works in retail, and is seeking a paralegal job. Her parents, who are older and struggle financially, aren’t in a position to help. Her mother, a breast cancer survivor, was unemployed for a couple of years. Her father, a mechanic, works when jobs are available.
 

“ So it is up to us to save for our wedding,” Byrd says.

Kinzie, who takes on additional work in addition to his full-time EMT job, doesn’t mind working the long hours for Byrd, whom he calls “the love of his life.”

But the dream wedding truly would be a dream come true.

“I would do anything for her,” he says. “I want to give her the best wedding possible.”

Contact Tina Firesheets at 373-3498, or tina.firesheets@news-record.com