Our Love Story
The first time we met
The story starts when Marcos, Gaby's brother, who had met Douwe at a party in San Francisco earlier in the year, saw on Facebook that Douwe was in Mexico City visiting colleagues, and asked his sister to give "his Dutch friend" some recommendations on things to do and see.
We decided to meet up at a restaurant, and what was supposed to be a quick dinner and maybe a drink turned into a 5-hour non-stop conversation. We saw each other as much as we could over the next few weeks, until Douwe flew out to Rio de Janeiro to meet colleagues there.
Gaby visits the Netherlands
While in Rio, Douwe asked Gaby if she would like to come visit him in the Netherlands the following week, and a flight was booked the same night.
In the Netherlands, Gaby got to meet Douwe's family and friends, and we quickly decided we were going do everything necessary to make our relationship work.
While walking around Utrecht, Gaby found out that the local university had a master's program that matched exactly what she was looking for. She applied for the program, and got accepted a few months later.
Douwe moves to Mexico
Because Gaby's master's program wouldn't start until the next September, almost a year later, we wanted to find a way to spend as much of that time together as possible.
Fortunately, Douwe's job allowed him to work from anywhere in the world, so after finishing up the 3 more months of travel he had already planned, he got on a flight to Mexico to live there with Gaby as long as his tourist visa would allow.
Moving to the Netherlands together
After living together in Mexico City for 6 months, it was time to move to the Netherlands where Gaby would start her master's a few months later.
Neither of us had seen Marcos since he had introduced us, so we decided to visit him in San Francisco on the way there to thank him for everything he put into motion.
The proposal
After having lived in the Netherlands for a bit over a year, we went to Cape Town, South Africa to attend an event for Douwe's work. We arrived a few days early, and on our last night by ourselves, Douwe lured Gaby to the marina and onto a yacht using a very believable cover story.
The yacht went out onto the water, and with the sunset on one side and the Cape Town waterfront on the other, Douwe got on one knee and asked the question in his carefully practiced Spanish. Gaby, of course, started tearing up and yelled "Siiiiii!!!!!".
The wedding
And that's where we are today!
We are super excited to invite you to our wedding to celebrate our story so far and to write the next chapter with us.
Learn more about the wedding