About Us
Tatyana Dyer SmithTatyana is originally from England but came over to the United States for graduate school. In 2004 she fell in love with Dallas and made it her short term life plan to return to live in the area after having to move away. Two years after setting this goal, she accomplished it and moved to Fort Worth, where she is now gainfully employed as a violinist with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Among other things, in her down time she enjoys eating delicious food, traveling, being a foster mom to her foster boxer Comet, reading, window shopping, watching movies and hurting people.
Cory SmithCory was born in the United States and has yet to get a passport to explore the rest of the world. He is a veteran software developer, working on projects ranging anywhere from major e-commerce sites such as RadioShack.com and InterstateBatteries.com to applications that are at the heart and soul of over 4600 radio stations around the world. Microsoft has voted him as one of their Most Valued Professionals for six years running, so they get the privilege of hearing his opinion on their existing and planned products several times a year. Cory is also an avid martial artist and has trained extensively with and become a certified instructor under some of the greatest teachers, including Bruce Lee's protege, Larry Hartsell. Cory now owns and operates a combative martial arts academy in Fort Worth where he passes on his wealth of knowledge to people from all walks of life. He is also an avid motorcycle enthusiast and attempts to watch every action movie ever released.
How we met
Tatyana's versionAfter moving to Fort Worth in August 2008, leaving the impoverished student years behind me, I felt it was time to start my new life with purpose and adventure. New Year 2009 came and I made a couple of resolutions - to find a place to volunteer my time and to take up martial arts. I had been looking for a place to train in causing others bodily harm since moving but hadn't found anywhere that looked interesting to me. I ran the same internet search as I had a few months prior and to my surprise a new school popped up that seemed to be exactly what I was looking for and was located only a short distance from my apartment! When I visited Cory's school, he greeted me with suspicion and his customary reserve. I observed one class and was hooked so the next week I started training and having the time of my life. A year later, circumstances came together and Cory and I got to know each other better and tentatively started dating. Well, the tentative part didn't last long as we soon found that we had many shared life goals and interests and, most importantly, Cory turned out to be just as weird as I am!
Cory's versionIt's surreal to reflect upon the circumstances leading to our relationship. In August of 2008, I was teaching a small but dedicated handful of students at a friend's Karate school. They'd been consistently growing their clientele and it became clear that if I were to need to spend more time training some of my guys that wanted to fight MMA that I would need to find an affordable location that I could afford pretty much out of pocket. I shared this information with the owners and seriously started the search for a new location. After being frustrated with how expensive retail locations were, decided to take a short break from it all and head to Colorado with a couple of friends for a motorcycle ride there and back. This was toward the end of September. While on this trip, I spoke with some of my guys and circumstances dictated that I cut my trip short and return home to immediately find a location. During my search, I found a small location that wasn't far away from where I was currently teaching, so I was trying to find something further away. Due to circumstances, I had little choice but to go ahead with this location and opened the new school as of October 1st (just three days after returning home).
Other facets of my life had been weighing heavily upon me for several years; feeling that I had been essentially in a very one-sided relationship, fighting for financial freedom completely alone and working toward a solid future, again, completely alone. I rarely pray, so it seems when I do, they do get answered. This is the second time that I received an answer but didn't necessarily like the answer at the time. Events transpired that caused the marriage I was in to come to an immediate and abrupt end. Not the answer I was looking for, however, in retrospect it was probably, as they say, meant to be.
Meanwhile, I continued to teach at the school and Tatyana was one of the most dedicated students that I had. It seemed that she was a constant; someone that I could rely on to take my attention away from “real life”. In January of 2010, we were talking and it became clear that there might be something more between us. At a huge risk, even if we both agreed that it wouldn’t affect our teacher/student relationship, we decided to see where things could go.
Not wanting to make the same mistakes I’d made in the past, I decided that the only way to approach a relationship was to be completely open and honest, all the while leaving any fears or embarrassment behind regarding any questions that I may have. Because of this, the conversations that followed allowed us to form a bond very quickly and I knew in a very short time that Tatyana was someone that I wanted to spend the rest of my life getting to know better and someone that I could definitely share life’s journey with.
We began discussing the possibility of marriage and I officially proposed shortly after Easter 2010 (after meeting her parents, of course). She, of course, accepted. ;-)
There is more to this story, but I think this is enough for you to get the general idea… so I’ll stop rambling…
The Proposal
The proposal was simple and sweet. Cory took Tatyana back to Tommy's Hamburgers (incidentally voted every year as the best burger joint in the DFW metroplex), the location of their first real date. While they were sitting at the table they sat at on their first date (the coldest table in the house, next to the refridgerators) waiting for their food, Cory presented Tatyana with a beautiful diamond solitaire ring and asked her to marry him. She accepted. After sloppily munching their way through their burgers, they went to see "How to Train Your Dragon" in 3D, also in honor of their first date, during which they saw "Avatar" which was also in 3D.