We met through a dating app. I was his first online date. I had been on what felt like a million online dates! We texted back and forth and eventually decided to meet in person. We met at a local pub across from my school so I could make a quick escape if I needed, haha. We quickly discovered that there was a spark; he liked my laugh and my smile and I thought he was very sweet and was drawn in by his eyes. Then he took me to a Balkan club to listen to some live music. What started as a skeptical date for the both of us ended up being the beginning of my favorite love story!

My friend, Renee, was in a show downtown and texted me to see if Oran and I wanted to go. I asked him and he secretly started texting Renee to see if he could propose at the end of her show. She was super excited and told him she would make it happen, so he tried to play it off and said, "Yeah, I guess we can go if you want to." Then he told me that we could dress up and have a nice date. That should have tipped me off, but I was just excited for an excuse to dress nice, so I didn't think anything of it. Over the next day and a half Renee and Oran arranged the proposal. There were light and sound cues. He worked on a speech, the whole nine. The night of the show Oran came to my place and we were going to Uber to the theater together. We left a little later than I wanted, but everything SHOULD have been fine. Our driver ended up being super old and was in absolutely in no hurry and then there was a wreck on the freeway so he took a "shortcut." I texted Renee panicked that we were going to miss the show. I had no idea that they were holding the house because we were the guests of honor. We finally made it and there was a bunch of our friends there, still no alarm bells. After the show, at the end of the curtain call Renee announced that there was a special guest and Oran stood up. Still didn't think anything was weird because the night before Oran and Renee were joking that he was going to come and give everyone acting lessons. I thought, "Oh, no! What did they cook up?" Then he turned to me, pulled out a box, got down on one knee and asked "Will you marry me?" I was so shocked! I cried and said yes! Later he told me that he was supposed to take me up on the stage and he had a whole speech prepared, but he saw all of those eyes looking at him and he had to just do it before he lost his nerve. He said he now knows why men kneel when they propose, they need the extra stability!

This is the year of multiple weddings! We have several friends and family members that have chosen 2020 to be the year they are quarantined for life! In light of all of the craziness that is going on, everyone we know who has/is getting married this year has had to change or cancel their plans. We are no different. At the beginning of the pandemic so many things were shutting down and changing. Even with things starting to open up a bit more, we heard rumors of a second wave coming in the fall and it being even worse than when it started. We were very concerned that we would not be able to get married on our original date in October. So when they announced that Las Vegas was opening back up on the first of May we decided that we should get married while we had the opportunity and celebrate with our loved ones in October as planned. We got married in a sweet little private ceremony on May 2, 2020 in Las Vegas, NV and we are so happy that we did! We are loving being married and getting to have an even better and deeper relationship than we already had! Even though we are already married, we are so excited to get to share a day and celebrate with you! We are going to have a short ceremony to bless our marriage and to exchange rings and then have a reception to relax and eat and enjoy each other's company. We also understand that there is still a lot going on with Covid-19. If you are unable to come and celebrate with us, we completely understand! We plan to have our ceremony up on Facebook Live so that you will be able to join us no matter where you are. And be on the lookout for our wedding hashtag, #happilyevergulen, so that you can see all of the pictures and videos that will be posted!