GirlGI | Girl Gone International GirlGI Issue 3 | Page 73

Our Story Meeting Tom was a oncein-a-lifetime chance. It was November of 2012, I was living in Italy and he was living just outside of London where he’d grown up. I randomly reconnected with an old friend named Matt after I noticed on Facebook that he was living in Prague. I hadn’t spoken to him in years, but he invited me to come to Prague to see my favorite DJs live. Just a few months before, Tom had met Matt at a music festival, and invited him to come see the show as well. We met in Matt’s flat and fell in love that weekend. Only a week after, I moved back to the US after meeting up with Tom in Paris for less than 24 hours. together. I decided I would move to London after spending a few months with my family and friends in the ‘States. He visited me in New York for a week after Christmas and it was during this time that we knew we were meant to spend our lives The wedding planning was a whole new ballgame for us. We decided to get married in New York City, so I scouted out venue possibilities and researched all other aspects of the wedding. I sent Tom lots of photos and would fill him in on the details of the wedding during our daily Skype sessions so we could make all of the decisions that come with wedding planning, together. Almost the entirety of our relationship was long distance, but the difficulties were multiplied when I attempted to go to London in April 2013 on a 6 month tourist visa and was detained, sent back to the US and banned from entering the UK. Yes... banned from the country where the love of my life lived. Between the fact that Tom had limited funds and vacation time to visit New York and I was unable to visit his country, we decided to add “plan a wedding” to our virtual relationship to-do list.