Couple meets on Instagram; has 'insta-wedding' seconds after meeting

Leticia Juarez Image
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Instagram couple has 'insta-wedding' seconds after face-to-face meeting
A couple who never met in person had a spontaneous wedding just seconds after meeting for the first time.

TEMECULA, Calif. (KABC) -- A couple who never met in person had a spontaneous wedding just seconds after meeting for the first time.

It wasn't love at first like, but pretty close for Erica Harris and Arte Vann.

The couple met 1 year ago over Instagram, but it wasn't until Friday that they met face-to-face, kissed and then had an insta-marriage ceremony at the airport.

It all started over the couple's mutual interest in poetry on an Instagram page.

Harris in Murrieta, California, and Vann in New York messaged each other back and forth, and five days into the online courtship, they took their romance offline.

"He says 'Erica, I know this is crazy...how can I love you after five days, but I know in my soul I've lived enough to know,'" Harris said. "I felt that way too but I was scared."

Then, just three weeks ago during an exchange on Instagram, friends suggested they get married.

Soon after, Harris popped the question, Vann did not immediately respond.

"I tried to comment back and I lost my internet connection and it said it failed. All of a sudden they're posting and were like 'we're waiting,'" said Vann.

Vann quickly quit his job as a chef, packed his bags and bought a one-way ticket to California.

Harris, a divorced mother of three boys, needed to get their blessing.

"...I wanted her to get married again so she would have an easier time," said son Adam Harris.

Harris and Vann still need to make the whole insta-marriage legal and plan to do that soon.

The newlyweds were taking everything in stride.

"We are going to take it by the reins and take it wherever it goes," said Vann. "But I know I'm never leaving her side."