Erica Krantz Fillmore and Jake Fillmore Marry in Red River

Tie the Knot

Erica Krantz Fillmore and Jake Fillmore Marry in Red River

Written by Dee Yates
Photos by Paul McPherson

Every so often a wedding comes across our pages that feels a little closer to home than the rest, and this is one of them. Erica Krantz Fillmore is one of our own, a former contributor to Ropers Sports News and a dear friend of Bob and Steph and Dee, so getting to share the day she married Jake Fillmore is a true joy for the whole RSN family. Fittingly for a woman who has spent her life in this western world, the thing that first brought the two of them together was a team roping.

They met in 2015, not long after Erica moved from her hometown of Lodi, California, to Texas, when a set of mutual friends and a shared arena put them in the same place at the same time. She was chasing steers and building a life around horses. He was doing the same between crops, cattle, and duck blinds back home in Oklahoma. Roping, it turned out, was only the beginning of what they had in common.

Erica has never been one to sit still. At 35 she competes in team roping and travels the country to enter, runs social media for a handful of western businesses, trains and rides horses, and has settled into life as a farm wife on the operation she now shares with Jake in Davidson, Oklahoma. Jake, 38, was born and raised there and never left. He works as a crop insurance agent, farms and ranches, guides waterfowl hunts on the side, and ropes whenever the schedule allows. That last part matters. Roping is the hobby the two of them get to share, and it is a big reason they fit the way they do.

The proposal came in the place that would eventually mean everything to them. Jake asked Erica to marry him on the back porch of his mother’s cabin in Red River, New Mexico, early one morning before the two of them headed up the mountain to ski and snowboard. Snow had fallen through the night, and the whole valley was clean and quiet and white. It was the kind of morning you do not forget, and it set the tone for a wedding that would return to the very same spot.

Red River is their place in every sense. It is where they first said I love you, where Jake proposed, and where they go year-round to get to the mountains. So when it came time to choose a venue, there was never any real question. Erica and Jake married on June 27, 2026, in the backyard and on the back deck of his mother’s cabin at Young’s Ranch in Red River. With the guest list kept under forty people, everyone pitched in to bring the day together, and in Erica’s words it came off effortlessly and beautifully.

Because both Erica and Jake had been married before, they wanted something small and intimate built entirely around the people closest to them. They skipped bridesmaids and groomsmen altogether, not as a shortcut but on purpose. The idea was for everyone to relax, enjoy a week in the mountains, and not get buried in wedding details. Guests rolled into town on Wednesday, and the whole group settled in for several days of laughing, visiting, and soaking up the high country before the ceremony ever started.

The couple did a first look on that same back deck where Jake had proposed, which let them take their photos early and then actually enjoy their own wedding. It gave them time to grab a drink, hang out, and laugh with the friends and family who had made the long haul to New Mexico. That was the whole point for Erica and Jake. Wedding days move fast, and they wanted to slow this one down and be present for every minute of it.

Erica kept her look simple and unmistakably her own. She found her gown on Lulus for a grand total of ninety-eight dollars, wanting something easy she would not have to stress about, and paired it with her Ariat red lizard-print booties. Her jewelry carried the sentiment. She had told Jake early on that she did not want a diamond to worry about with as much time as she spends outdoors, so he proposed with a RinFit rubber band and a stand-in stone. Her real ring came from her mother, a gold diamond ring that suited this self-described gold girl perfectly and meant all the more for where it came from. Her earrings were custom made by Marisa Rae Julian of Branded N Silver, worked in Erica’s signature red and engraved on the back with the wedding date and her new last name.

The rest of the details came from people who matter to them. Kim Swearingen, a friend of Jake’s mother, styled Erica’s hair. Her bouquet was put together by good friend Mallory Brown, a twenty-eight dollar Hobby Lobby arrangement Erica was glad not to fuss over. Paul McPherson of Shutterfreak captured the day. For food the couple went local and easy with a taco bar and a graze table from Tonya Lewis of Bowkaye’s and Beyond. Instead of a traditional cake they served cookies and brownies, including a duck cookie for Jake’s love of waterfowl and a cowboy-hat smiley for the bride, both from Machado’s Bakery in Whitesboro, Texas, alongside cosmic-style brownies, Erica’s favorite, from The Enchanted Home Bakery in Questa, New Mexico. Music came courtesy of Erica’s sponsor, Turtlebox, whose largest speaker, the Grande, ran a phone playlist all night while a friend handled the start and stop for the ceremony and the first dance.

Erica and Jake are holding off on a honeymoon for now. Between his hunting season, her roping schedule, and the demands of the farming operation, they would rather wait and plan a real trip when the calendar finally gives them room. In the meantime the celebrating is not over. The two are throwing a big reception in Wichita Falls, Texas, on July 25, 2026, an open invitation to everyone who could not make the mountains so they can raise a glass together too.

For a couple who built their life around ropes, ranches, and wide-open country, the day landed exactly where it should have. It was small on purpose, personal down to the last cookie, and set in the one place that has held all their most important moments. Erica has given so much to this western world and to this magazine, and it is a gift to watch her step into this next chapter with Jake beside her. Congratulations to Erica and Jake Fillmore on a beautiful beginning, from all of us at Ropers Sports News.