Bells often jokes that her search for true love ended up being global. While Sam was living on a farm in rural Victoria, Australia, Bells was living in Boston, Massachusetts, and their home coordinates were about as far apart as you can get. In September, 2018, their paths crossed at a dear friend’s wedding in Herefordshire. After the wedding, Sam was flying back to Boston on his way home to Australia to see family and Bells was returning home. Sam asked Bells if she would like to come out on a boat with him for the day. Not one to ever turn down an offer of adventure (especially one on the water), Bells happily accepted though was adamant with her girlfriends that this was “definitely not a date … this guy lives in the middle of nowhere in rural Australia”. Sam took Bells on a boat ride off Cape Ann, on the North Shore of Boston, and although they only spent a few hours together as Sam had to fly back to Australia, the spark was strong! Bells messaged her friends after the date and told them she thought she had met the person she was meant to spend her life with. Trixy, Bells’s sister, was living in Singapore at the time, so Bells announced that as she was going to be in Singapore for Christmas it would be very easy to just “pop down to Australia” for a few days so they could explore a second date. “Punchy”, Sam thought! Bells arrived in Melbourne on Christmas Day 2018, and that “second date” ended up lasting two weeks … 2019 ended up seeing Bells visit Australia 4 times, Sam visit the US 4 times, and the two of us together visited the UK 3 times! Some love stories it transpires you just can’t control!

Oxford has represented a magical and very special part of our love story since our early days together. In March 2019, technically our “third date”, Sam and Bells flew together to Oxford as Bells was giving a talk at Lincoln College. We spent an incredible few days in the city and in the surrounding Cotswolds and have photos by the Bodleian Library from that first trip. Since being a student at Oxford, the city has always held a special place in Bells’s heart. Bells was a Lincoln College undergraduate, studying medicine, a Lincoln College graduate, gaining her DPhil in Pharmacology here, and is now a Fellow and Director of Studies in Clinical Medicine at the College – slowly working her way up through the Common Rooms! Sam is also now affiliated with the University and Lincoln College as a clinical lecturer – the students love his tales of the Australian bush! Recognising the important part Oxford played in their love story, Sam had the jeweller put the skyline of Oxford on the bridge of the engagement ring, with the silhouettes of the Radcliffe Camera and Lincoln College Library represented. It was always the place we imagined we would get married.

Sam proposed on the front deck of our farm in Mansfield, Victoria, during the first lockdown. Sam designed the engagement ring, recognising that the ring will outlive both of us and wanting it to tell our love story across the three continents. The sides of the ring represent the Zakim Bridge in Boston. There is a restaurant at the foot of this bridge where we always went for dinner whenever Sam got off the plane from Australia and landed in Boston. The setting of the central stone is set in a rosette that is mirrored off the rosettes on the Albert Bridge in London where Bells grew up. The skyline of Oxford is represented in miniature on the bridge of Arabella's engagement ring, as described above. And, on the underside of the setting, Sam had a secret pink Australian argyle diamond set, to sit against the finger and remind us that Australia is where it all started. Due to Australia’s strict national and international border closures (that were to last several years), Sam and Bells celebrated just the two of them for quite some time!

As it became clearer that Australia had no intentions of relaxing their border restrictions, we decided to get married, just the two of us, on August 25th, 2020. We celebrated in a small Anglican Church in Watsons Bay, Sydney, with the verger of the Church and the organist acting as our witnesses. The pews were empty, and we walked down the aisle together to be married by Bishop Stuart Robinson. Whilst there is no doubt this day was magical and special in ways we will never forget, we are beyond excited to finally be sharing this special milestone with our closest friends and family with our long-awaited wedding in Oxford. We feel particularly lucky to have our two daughters, Beatrice and Ophelia, with us this time as our flower girls.