Oh Italy.. You've stolen so many hearts... When we think about every wonder Italy has to give, we think of all those romantic tunes that come to mind, the sun of Tuscany, narrow streets and lovers kissing at every corner. Italy with all its splendor and charm is paradise for those who love and want to shower each other with tenderness. Everything about Italy is about expressing yourself and your feelings, and local people will make you feel what's like to feel home.
Sweet Italy became that special place for this fun loving newly engaged couple, and getting ready to start a new life together. Captured by the talented Fernweh Photography they explore the beauty of Italy with its charming blue boats, cozy cafes and paved streets.
The couple truly gave us that feeling of excitement and desire to return to Italy to enjoy our favorite gelato! Ciao and grazie!
Their love story: Our story started out like most, I was definitely not fond of my husband lol. I was the studious type, finishing my undergrad, ready to take on the world. He however, came into my Italian class as if he ruled the class and sat in front of me. For 2 whole weeks he turned around in his chair and bugged me every day until finally he started growing on me. Not long after I found out that this was all a show, and that deep down he was the perfect man for me. Our story is crazy as our families are too similar to be real, and the longer we're with each other, the more things we discover. Did you know that my maid of honor and his best man have the same birthday? And we were born a week apart! The best thing about our relationship is that we are best friends and have so much in common; we both love art, food (cooking amazing Italian food), and traveling the world. However, this has also brought distance between us, as neither wanted the other to miss out on things. Shortly after we met, I moved to Italy for 4 months. We stuck it out, then I came home. A year later, Jan accepted a position in London and once again we did long distance, this time a little longer. I was in Phoenix, working with under-privileged youth as he was just starting out his career in advertising. Through long distance phone calls and internet, once again, we made the long distance work. Though long distance was tough, I think it made us that much stronger. The long talks taught us things about each other and ourselves that we would never probably have known. Like I said, he's my best friend, so those calls were some of my best memories. Afterwards we moved to Chicago together and the rest is history. We still look forward to traveling, and dream of different cities where we want to end up next!
How he asked: Our engagement was less than traditional which is fine because Jan and I don't like to conform to rules. Jan had been plotting his proposal for several month with his mom and my best friend Amanda. He had a custom made ring made in Venice and had spent about 4 months looking for the perfect gem. During the middle of summer however i came up with the idea that we should forgo a traditional engagement and just go straight into wedding planning. Being that the engagement was supposed to be a surprise Jan had to say yes to my idea in order to not raise any alarms. For the following 3 months people in our office kept telling Jan how he had to get me a ring and that our engagement was not official. Little did they know that around the first week of December Jan's jeweler called him to let him know he had found a purple tanzanite for the ring. Jan's mom was able to bring the ring to Chicago and on a cold winter night Jan got on one knee and, clumsily, took the box out of his pocket and asked me to marry him. I of course thought it was a joke as Jan had been "proposing" on his knee several times in the past months so that when the real proposal happened I would not suspect. The ring fit perfectly but my hand got really cold cause i could not put my glove back on and Chicago in the winter is pretty chilly.
Photography: Fernweh Photography
