We all are but a chance. A small fragment of hope in a world open for opportunity, for love, for growth and for loss. All we seek is a chance to play the hand we are dealt, even if a pair of hearts is all we are holding. The freedom to risk it all, to double down, if we are able to summon the courage. And like a train set on a singular track, the becoming is imminent. Beyond what we cannot yet see or touch, a burning spark that lights possibility. And so is told a story of two souls born to opposite ends of the world, divided by language, time and culture, yet seemingly fate-determined to collide at a precise moment in time. A yellow-haired boy set forth from California’s golden Pacific shores and a gypsy-skinned Estonian girl born to the Baltic Sea would cross paths in the most unlikely of locales. A love affair would commence beneath skies of grey in the mighty Pacific Northwest.

In the summer of 2018, newlyweds Andrew and Olya Voralik packed up their life in a seventeen-foot box truck and set out across 3000 miles of America, driving from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, to imagine, design, build and become owners and operators of Slate & Cypress Weddings and Estate, located in the beautiful coastal town of Calabash, North Carolina. In pursuit of the elusive American dream, and with every penny they could scratch, they brought with them a classic sense of California’s Napa Valley, inspired by Tuscany’s distinguished Mediterranean landscape, and infused it with the serenity of the Carolina Coast. A burning vision to create a first class, full-service boutique wedding Estate oasis, unlike anything existing in the Carolinas.

“We understood the challenges we were up against as outsiders from a different part of the country, and there is of course the daunting reality that we are not independently wealthy, which meant that we were going to need to put every tool in our toolbelt to the test, literally and figuratively. We knew that our years of excelled work experience in poignant professional fields (real estate, asset and land management, legal, financial, insurance, construction, entertainment, hospitality and customer service) were going to give us a leg up in the industry, however, it was still to be an immense financial risk for shallow-pocketed dreamers like us. It would mean months of very long work days, sore hands and breaking backs. But, what an exciting way to live! A dream is the wind to the sail of ambition. In the end, the decision was easy, despite the many challenges we faced along the way. While we have no crystal ball and the future remains a canvas yet to be painted, we can reflect with affirmation on that decision we once made 3000 miles away and under a late afternoon cloudy sky: ‘pack the truck and don’t look back.’”