This spring, Breakfast Television legend Dina Pugliese returned to the air as host, and a new face joined her: Tim Bolen, CHCH’s morning radio host. The TV personality shares the very Toronto story behind his and his wife Elizabeth Davies’ more than a decade of love.
How they met
Well, that’s a story that Liz knows in better detail than me. She had just moved to Toronto and started working at the Keg on York Street (where I worked as well). She was hoping to go by Elizabeth (instead of Liz) in her new city. She is such a people pleaser, every person she was introduced to as Elizabeth, they said, “Can I call you Liz?” As she says, I was the only one that said, “Hi Elizabeth,” and alarm bells went off in her head. I was a confident curly haired lad who had no thoughts of settling down at the time. Luckily, she gave me a chance anyway — and here we are.
The first date
Our first date was at a place called Cluck Grunt Low. It was at the corner of Bloor and Spadina and actually a few years after we originally met. We had spent time together as friends, but this was our first date. It was preplanned but ended up being thrown together at the last minute as I was just starting my broadcasting career and needed to cover an on-air shift. Liz completely understood but had to change our date location, so we popped into the first restaurant we saw after getting off the subway. It sure wasn’t a fancy spot and would have been a great place to crush a beer and watch the game with a buddy … maybe not the best first date spot with my future wife!
When they realized the other was “the one”
This sounds so cheesy, but it was that first date at that sports bar. We had such a great time that I knew I was in trouble!
The proposal
We got engaged in NYC back in the Summer of 2012. I had planned this surprise and brought the ring on the plane with me. I kept it in my pocket the whole time as I didn’t want to lose it. When I bent down to ask her in a rowboat on the lake in Central Park everything was perfect … except she wasn’t surprised as I had kept the ring in the box and she saw it protruding from my pocket the entire time! She said yes and we had a good laugh.
The wedding
We got married at my parents’ farm where I grew up in the Summer of 2013. Liz didn’t want a big wedding but somehow, I convinced her to have close to 200 of our family and friends there. It was plenty of work to put together but the best party of our lives! We had a small cover band play for us on my dad’s hay wagon under a massive tent. That band was Dwayne Gretzky who have gone on to huge things in the years following. The above picture of us is us dancing to “Wake Up” by Arcade Fire; the band learned it for us and planned it as the final song.
The kids and pets
We started with a dog — the best dog, in fact. Liz started asking for a dog the second we moved in together. She was persistent, and eventually I cracked as we got Alfy — a snuggly Bernese Mountain dog. Alfy was with us when our first two kids were born, Pippa and Gabriel. Unfortunately, we had to put him down before Ophelia, a.k.a. Phee, was born. Alfy was the first member of our family. The kids are everything for us.
The secret to success
We both just do our best every day. Maybe that sounds lame, but it’s the truth. Some days, our best is a “world record” of performance, and other days, it’s literally just getting through the day. If either of us falls short of our responsibilities, we do our best to lift ’em up!
Balancing careers and a relationship
We are maybe a little different than the norm. We are ships in the night. I work early mornings. Liz works evenings/nights. Most days, Liz crawls into bed after a long day of work moments before I am getting up to start my day. We’ve been doing that for the better part of two decades. We don’t generally prioritize date nights, but we always look forward to time spent together as a couple and time spent with all five of us as a family.
The future together
Is it terrible that we haven’t really talked about this — or even thought much about it? With younger kids, we’re really at a stage in life where we’re just trying to focus on what’s right in front of us. If we’re dreaming a little, it would be amazing to have a cottage or a home where our kids — and hopefully their families — keep coming back to.
