welcome to our persian-south african wedding

Mona and Anton met on their first day at the University of Cape Town. They were placed in the same Orientation group and felt an immediate connection. Although their chance encounter didn't develop into a friendship (or more), they remained curious. They would sometimes see each other in the library and in the second semester, they were registered in the same course, 'Analysing Film and TV', which had film screenings on Friday afternoons. One of these Fridays, Anton and Mona walked back to Anton's family home in Rondebosch. It would be the one and only time Mona would see the home where he grew up. Even though Anton and Mona did not see each other often during their undergrad years, Mona would look forward to the Varsity newspaper every week to read Anton's humourous articles. Once, he wrote about the concept of a 'white horse' - someone you have a crush on who is elusive. This is what Anton and Mona remained to each other throughout these years.

After UCT, Anton and Mona lost touch. The first time Mona saw him again was on her laptop screen - she came across the South African TV series Tali's Wedding Diary and was surprised to see her undergrad crush playing the dashing Darren. Mona remembers texting her friends about this but she chose not to do serious sleuthing to find Anton's social media page - she was curious and still found him dreamy but she did not want to be a groupie. Luckily, fate intervened. Mona was working at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg when Anton spent a weekend at his friend Fudge's house; they were working together to host an Asics event. On a slow Sunday evening during loadshedding, Anton and Mona matched on Tinder and met up the next day during one of Mona's teaching breaks. They never looked back.