This Couple Met on Trip to Ireland, Left With Matching Tattoos and Now They’re Planning a Wedding (Exclusive)

Eric Krueger had long dreamed of visiting Ireland. But without a spouse or partner, he decided to book a 10-day trip for solo travelers last May, touring various cities throughout the Emerald Isle. 

About halfway through the trip, Krueger and three other solo travelers made an excursion to Galway in Western Ireland, where they perused local stores. After tiring of shopping, Amy Kinnard, 47, who says she has "way too many tattoos to count,” suggested popping into the local tattoo shop and getting some ink to commemorate the trip.

“Eric had said, ‘If you get a tattoo, I’ll get a tattoo,’” Kinnard recalls. “I was like, 'Deal.’”

They selected similar Celtic knot tattoos and spent the rest of day getting to know each while exploring the coastal town together. 

“We really hit it off,” Kinnard says. “The conversation was so easy. It was like I had known him forever.”

“We both felt like there was something there,” she adds. “But neither one of us really wanted to say anything.” 

With Kinnard living close to San Francisco and Krueger just north of Dallas, there was 1,700 miles between them, so distance was an issue. Nonetheless, they exchanged numbers and made plans to meet during Kinnard’s layover at the Dallas airport on her way home. 

Then the phone calls began. “It’s like the conversation just picked up that day in Galway,” says Krueger, who flew out to visit Kinnard two weeks later and kissed her for the first time at the San Francisco airport in early June. 

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“It was an amazing visit,” says Kinnard, who later told friends, “I’m going to marry this guy. He’s such a supportive, kind person, super fun personality.” 

“It was like Galway all over again,” adds Kinnard.

In July — less than three months after first meeting in Ireland — Krueger proposed to Kinnard on bended knee when she visited him in Texas.

“I was totally surprised,” says Kinnard, who has since retired from her job as a health-care-clinic manager and moved to Texas to be with Krueger. 

The couple plans to marry on January 25 in California and will have Tom Foster, the tour director at EF Go Ahead Tours, officiate at the wedding ceremony.

“How Amy and I met was completely natural, it was completely organic,” says Krueger, a program manager. “We weren’t trying to make anything happen. Everything just flowed.” 

"Eric’s that person that just gets me and I feel like I get him. No matter what we’re doing, we have a great time doing it," adds Kinnard. “It’s important for people to stay open to the possibilities. You never know when love might find you."