Jacqueline Marie Spata and Cameron Thomas Paton were connected to one night from a friend at work, but they were terrified that they had ruined an incredible friendship. Instead, they opened the door to a deeper relationship.
The two met briefly and officially in July 2022 as employees of Revel Decor, working on the event setup for Lollapalooza, a four-day music festival in Chicago.
A year later in August 2023, they began to get to know each other when they went out for a drink at Soho House Chicago around the West Loop. “I gave Cameron's date advice and he left that night to pick up a girl,” Spata said.
They continued on to Plato and along the way, “We were each capturing emotions, but we didn't want to acknowledge how amazing our friendship was,” Spata said.
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Then, in late October 2023, Spata invited Paton to a Chicago Bulls game at United Center. After the game they went bar hopping until 2am
Mr. Spata said, “Cam was a gentleman and walked me to my room.” He was to stay at night.
“The next morning, Cameron made a crazy dash at 7am and headed to Rockford, Illinois for Grandpa's 80th birthday,” Spata said.
Then it was two days of radio silence. “I was just spiral,” she said. “I thought, 'What did you do? I might have lost my best friend.' ”
Patong recalled a similar idea: “We had this wonderful friendship. Did you throw it out the window?”
Finally, on Monday morning, Patong sent her a long text, saying she wanted to make sure she was OK, and she didn't want to affect her work or friendship.
“For the next week, we were like, 'Let's just have friends,'” Spata said. “We avoided each other for a few days,” Patong said.
In early November, the two went to the sushi dock in West Loop. “We ended up talking about it for 30 seconds. We told them to go ahead and not ruin our friendship.”
However, the plan did not last long. A few days later they went to Forno Rosso Pizzeria Napoletana in West Loop. Something felt different that night – a bit nasty and perhaps romantic, they said.
As they left, “The cam drove next to my car and I said angrily, 'We need to understand this,'” Spata said. He wanted to talk about it in his place. She wanted to discuss it immediately. He won that round.
“We had a few minutes of arguing and then decided to run out of excuses for not doing this,” Spata said. “I stayed in the evening and we've never looked back.”
The two began living together informally in February 2024 at Ms Spata's house, sometimes spending the night at his place in town.
In March 2024, Patong told Spata that she loves her for the first time. And in May 2024 they bought a double together at West Loop.
Patong proposed on the rooftop of the St. Regis hotel in October 2024, followed by an intimate dinner party at the hotel's restaurant, Tredita.
“The night before I called out to a friend, 'Why is he taking so long?'” Spata said. “I saw him crying me in the car and talking to my friend, and that was the next day.”
Spata, 28, grew up in Oakbrook, Illinois, holds a bachelor's degree from DePaul University in public relations and hospitality.
Paton, 27, was born and raised in Ocala, Florida. He is the operation director of level decoration.
The two married April 4th at the Cook County Clerk's office, with Circuit Court judge Philip Fowler, only photographers present. On the same day, Spata hit the 23-week mark in pregnancy with her child, which she hopes for in August.
A celebratory wedding is planned on April 26th at Tre Dita, where the couple celebrated their engagement.
“I didn't expect to be the type to get married underground in a government building, but I'm here,” Spata said. “When you love someone so much, it doesn't matter where you are, but only the people you are with.”
