The story is a familiar one: we met at work. However, it would’ve been very easy for us to not have met at all. Cleo could have declined to step in for her colleague who worked in the same building as Tolya, and Tolya could have kept walking to his office without turning to greet the person at the front desk. Cleo could have also spent her working hours that day soaking the sun on the roof of the office building, or Tolya could have squashed the voice in his heart that urged him to say hello to the beautiful stranger. Cleo could have stopped herself from asking the fascinating man for his number to practice Japanese together, and Tolya could have also easily said "no" to her request. Neither of us would’ve been the wiser of each other’s existence. Instead, we each said "yes" in our own way, and never stopped saying “yes” to each other since.

On our last leg of our tour in France visiting Tolya's relatives, we decided to stop by Versailles on the coldest day in December imaginable. We walked past the crowd huddling by the golden gates of the palace, past perfectly curated gardens and romantic marble fountains to head towards the Queen's Hamlet, the farm estate where Marie Antoinette used to escape from royal life, and where she enjoyed solitary walks and small gatherings with her closest entourage. Fittingly, Tolya picked this middle path, between gilded gates and vegetable gardens, to ask Cleo to spend the rest of their lives together. With the sound of applause from a small gaggle of French women rolling by in their golf cart, Cleo and Tolya were betrothed.

We're making lemonade out of lemons with a magically intimate ceremony and reception that we hope to livestream for our friends and families out of town, followed by an after party with some local friends. We can't wait to celebrate all together, safely and soon.