A Figure Skating Love Story: Eva Pate and Logan Bye

Photo credit Jessica Grace Photography
By Kristen Henneman

When Eva Pate and Logan Bye first started dating back in December of 2018, it didn’t seem like a happily ever after was in their future.

They had met earlier that year at the rink in Canton, Michigan. Pate trained there as a solo dancer, Bye as an ice dancer.

Bye was also in college, pursuing a degree in biomedical engineering. So when Pate asked Bye if he wanted to hang out, there was only one day Bye had free each week – Wednesdays – and it was only for a couple of hours.

“My mom would always be like, ‘Eva, I don't think he likes you. He only wants to hang out with you on Wednesdays,’” Pate said with a laugh.

But it wouldn’t take long for Pate’s mom, Jenny Pate, to change her mind on Bye’s feelings toward her daughter. Just a couple of months after their first date at Noodles & Company, in early 2019, Jenny Pate met Bye for the first time. All three went to dinner together, and while Pate and Bye don’t remember anything out of the ordinary, Pate’s mom saw something special.

“My mom got in the car on the way home and she called my dad and she said, ‘David, you better be nice to this guy because this is the man Eva’s going to marry,’” Pate recalled. “She knew. She was like, ‘I just knew because the way he was looking at you.’”

It wasn’t until several months later that Pate and Bye considered skating together. Bye was at a crossroads after breaking up with his previous partner and was deciding if he wanted to continue skating.

Since they were already dating, Pate asked Bye if he wanted to join her lesson.

“Things just kind of progressed. And it was like, ‘Well, why don't we just do this? Neither of us have a partner. Obviously, we like each other. We’re dating,’” Bye said. “[Eva] never pressured me. It was actually really sweet. Eva was giving me space and letting me figure out what I wanted to do. … It was an easy transition.”

Pate now had her first ice dance partner as their partnership became official in June of 2019.

Now, the couple who trains in Novi, Michigan, was certainly together more than just once a week on Wednesdays. They became inseparable, known for being together 24/7 – skating together, coaching at the same time and living together. Sometimes they would even call each other during the car ride on the way home!

“Our personalities, we work well together,” Pate said.

“I think we both have the same outlook,” Bye added. “Eva and I are pretty much best friends on the ice. … Mistakes will happen, but we tend to laugh with each other. I think that plays a lot into the relationship that we have off the ice.”

When asked what they love most about each other, even their answers were similar. They both said each other’s heart, noting that Pate shows her love verbally while Bye shows his more though action.

“[Eva] probably has the biggest heart. [She] doesn't want other people to ever not feel [comfortable around her], and that goes for any environment. It's not just in skating, and it's not just about the people that she knows,” Bye said of Pate. “You light up the room in that way. Her smile, physically her smile is the best. A lot of a lot of the coaches are like, ‘There's no way that you're ever going to not smile in a program, so we can't do something like that.’”

“Logan is definitely a caregiver,” Pate shared as she looked at Bye. “You do such a great job of making sure everything's taken care of. I don't have to worry about anything. What you get is the heart – you care so much about other people. … You try to make my life as easy as it can possibly be. That’s so sweet. And you make my lunch every day. And dinner. That's really sweet too.”

In August of 2022, Bye was ready to propose. The weekend before Champs Camp, his plan was to propose on their patio under a canopy of lights, but the night wouldn’t go as planned.

He had the ring ready in his pocket, but that evening, Pate decided it was time to put out the fall decorations. Not wanting her to see the ring in his pocket, he hid it under a hat.

“I am a die-hard fall girly. [For me], it hits August 1 because we're always gone for competitions in August and September, so I want to be able to enjoy my fall decorations,” Pate pronounced. “I was putting little scarecrows out that their feet dangle, but Logan had a baseball hat in the way. But the baseball hat was mesh. I just moved the hat over. I didn't pick it up, but I just moved it and then I saw the box. And I was like, ‘Logan, not again!’”

It wasn’t the first time she had found the ring. But in a spontaneous moment, Bye dropped down on his knee and asked Pate to marry him. She said yes.

On May 18, 2024, Pate and Bye tied the knot.

The ceremony was held at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Strongsville, Ohio. Just under 100 family members and friends – mostly from the skating community – were in attendance.

Pate walked down the aisle wearing a blusher – she wanted a very traditional ceremony – and a strapless dress altered by the same person who makes their skating costumes. Accompanied by her mom and dad, Bye couldn’t help but shed a tear.

“That day, it meant a lot. You hit this eureka moment of we're doing this,” Bye said. “We both cried. I started crying first for sure, though. … Tears were coming down automatically. When she started walking, I was like, ‘Wow, she's beautiful.’ And then I was like, ‘Oh shoot. She's stunning.’”

Included in the wedding party were two fellow Team USA ice dancers, Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko, who previously trained in Canton and Pate and Bye say they consider like family.

“We love Christina and Anthony. They’re the best,” Pate gushed. “When they used to train here in Michigan, we used to have movie nights every Saturday. We would watch scary movies every time.”

For the reception, everyone headed to the Sandusky Yacht Club, a place Pate grew up going to in the summers that features views of the water and lights in the distance from the amusement park, Cedar Point.

One of the surprises of the night was from Pate’s bridesmaids, who performed a choreographed number to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies.” As one might expect from the wedding of an ice dancing duo, the night was filled with lots of dancing.

“It was really fun,” Bye remarked. “Even the DJ was like, ‘You guys were all really good dancers.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, we all dance. That's what we kind of do for a living.’ It was fun. Everyone was on the dance floor.”

Nevertheless, one of the last decisions made was the song for their first dance.

“Our choreographer, Renee [Petkovski], she was like, ‘You guys need to pick a song. You need to do it choreographed. You can't just go out there. You guys can dance,’” Pate said. “And she's like, ‘what's your song?’ And I was like, ‘We don't have a song!’”

Ultimately, they chose “Jump in the Line.” The dance was choreographed by Petkovski and the dance was put together the Monday and Tuesday before the wedding.

“My great grandma was a big fan of Harry Belafonte, so it was paying homage to her,” Pate added. “It was so fun because everyone got on the dance floor and was dancing with us because we had a part where we did a little like conga line. It was fun. It got everyone dancing and that's what I wanted.”

At the end of the night, after dancing the night away, Pate had one more sweet gesture to make the night perfect.

“It was funny because everyone was like, ‘Oh, the cake was so good,’ and I was like, ‘I didn't have any cake,’” Bye said. “But it was so sweet. When we came back to our hotel that night, [Eva] brought a slice of cake for me. It was delicious.”

After the wedding, Pate and Bye headed off to none other than “The Most Magical Place on Earth” – Disney World.

“We had a blast. … I've been a few times, but Logan, it was his first time,” Pate said. “I feel like we travel a lot for skating, so we've seen a lot. We went to London and Ireland for a wedding in April and that's the other place I would have wanted to go. … And it was so funny. I was talking with somebody else [about our honeymoon] and my dad overheard me. He's like, ‘You wouldn't have gone anywhere else! Don't fool yourself. You've been planning this since you were little.’”

And now Pate and Bye are back to normal life and working on their programs for next season. It’s where they’re happiest though. On the ice, together, where they belong.