‘That warehouse dance floor 'hello' at 5am led to so much, and for that we'll be forever grateful.’

Helen+Ricky met in 2004 at a warehouse space in Brick Lane where Jamie Jones was throwing (an illegal) party called DJs Can Dance.

In Helen’s words

It was the early hours in a hot, sweaty pumping illegal warehouse party on Brick Lane when I spotted Ricky across a heaving dance floor 14 years ago. The venue was incredible. A huge warehouse, high ceilings and even a skateboard ramp! I'll always remember James Jones being at the entrance with a huge smile on his face, ushering people in before the police arrived. The feeling of anticipation from the crowd was immense. There was something magic about that night. I could feel it was soon as we arrived. You know when you can just feel it in your bones. The music, the venue and crowd all aligned perfectly, and it was golden.

I recognised Ricky him from the previous week where I had my hair cut at Trever Sorbie's hair salon in Covent Garden. Ricky was working there as an assistant. I was a hair model getting a freebie hair cut (not by Ricky but someone else). I clocked Ricky and thought he looked cute and cool with excellent big curly hair, and most importantly the best chat and banter. I wished that he was cutting my hair as he seemed so fun and full of character. Anyway, that was that....or so I thought.

A week later I clocked him at the warehouse party. "Oh, there's the cute hairdresser" I said to my good friend Jane. Feeling bold I thought I'd go and say hey. "You work at Trevor Sorbie's don't you?" "Erm, yeah", said Ricky totally surprised and clearly not having a clue who I was, probably thinking I was some kind of stalker. We got chatting, danced, laughed our heads off, connected and had the most electric night. 14 years later we are now married with 2 gorgeous kids. We've just managed to navigate ourselves through our biggest challenge yet of Ricky sadly losing his business due to Covid, but then setting up a new hair studio. It blows my mind to think we created all of this through a chance meeting on a sweaty warehouse dance floor. I like to think it was meant to be! The universe aligned for us that night. In normal circumstances I would never have had the guts to approach Ricky, but there's something about the fact that a venue like that will attract like-minded souls, so I knew it would ok to say hello. That warehouse dance floor 'hello' at 5am led to so much, for that we'll be forever grateful.