If you know us, it won’t come as a surprise why we chose this incredible country for our wedding. What are the odds that two people, born in the same year but in completely different corners of the world, would one day cross paths and fall so deeply in love?
Our story is as unique as the destination we’ve chosen, and we can’t wait to share this special place with all of you.
How It All Began
Through Enesh's Eyes: We met online in November 2020 and have been inseparable ever since. Derek has had a deep curiosity about the world since childhood. As a kid, his favorite bedtime companion was an atlas, and he grew up studying geography, memorizing every capital city and country on the map. If you know Derek well, you’ve likely experienced his endless passion for sharing his vast knowledge—sometimes to the point of being "tortured" by it! His intelligence, kindness, and open-minded nature are just a few of the things that make him so special. And if you manage to teach him something new, prepare for a long, engaging conversation—he’ll want to know everything.​​ What connects us most, beyond our shared passion for learning and adventure, is our love for athletics, hiking, and playing tennis. Two curious minds met by chance, and now, we can’t wait to embrace the future—together.
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Through Derek's Eyes: Our first date took place on the patio of an outdoor restaurant in the middle of a Chicago winter, during the height of COVID-19 restrictions when indoor dining was prohibited. Not long into the afternoon, raindrops started to fall, leaving us—two strangers meeting in person for the first time—with a dilemma: stick it out under our much-needed heat lamp or abandon the heat lamp for an equally needed umbrella. Enesh’s poise, calmness, and ability to maintain her impeccable sense of style in such an imperfect situation spoke volumes. It was, in hindsight, a beautiful foreshadowing of the qualities that would come to define her in our relationship.
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As we were leaving, she spoke Russian on the phone with her sister, which immediately set my geography-loving mind into overdrive as I tried to piece together the intriguing woman I had just spent this memorable, albeit cold and rainy, afternoon with. Whether it’s battling it out on the tennis court, discussing world politics on one of our endless hikes, or watching an Andrey Zvyagintsev film together, life with Enesh has been anything but dull. That first date set the tone for the adventure we’ve been on ever since, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for us.