Jarred Greff and Nina Schmidt.Scott Little photography
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Neither one was a regular transit rider, but one morning, fate – and the No. 3 bus – intervened to bring Jarred Greff and Nina Schmidt together.
Who: Jarred Greff, 36, hair stylist. Nina Schmidt, 35, stay-at-home-mom/photographer.
Relationship status: Married since 2013.
Location: Vancouver.
The ride to romance
Jarred: I was late for work on the morning we met, so I ended up taking the bus, which I don’t normally do.
Nina: And I was really hung over! I had been out the night before karaoke-ing. I actually ran to catch that bus. I almost missed it.
Jarred: When I got on I saw her right away. We made eye contact.
Nina: It sounds cheesy, but I could feel some kind of a connection.
Jarred: After a few blocks, the person sitting beside Nina got up, so I walked over. I’m a hairdresser, so I’m pretty comfortable talking to women … but I couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
Nina: Finally I said, “Excuse me – did you say something?”
Jarred: We didn’t have much time to talk. I mentioned the name of the salon I worked at and told her to come by. She said she could never cheat on her hairdresser. I thought she was trying to shoot me down.
The one-day rule
Nina: I went into the salon that same night.
Jarred: I had been watching the door all day. When I saw her come in I actually dropped a client’s head into the sink.
Nina: I gave him my number and he called the next day, which was surprising. You know, because a lot of people follow the three-day rule. For our first date we went bowling. We ended up staying together for 22 hours. We’ve been together ever since.
Here comes the bus
Nina: The idea to get married on the bus came up naturally. We knew we wanted to do something cool and a little bit different.
Jarred: When we were first talking about it we were half joking.
Nina: Jarred has a client who works for TransLink, so we reached out. We got shot down three times, but I am German and very persuasive and I just wouldn’t give up.
Jarred: We didn’t tell people it was our wedding. We just got everyone to meet at a bus stop.
Nina: I wanted to incorporate a little bit of tradition so I waited for the bus in front of the church. When I got on the bus I came in through the back door and walked down the aisle.