How We Met
Dimi and I met on a dating app while we were both in Thailand. The conversation flowed and we connected right away. Only problem was that I was on a different island than him – 14 kms away – and I was going back home the next day.
Unfortunately, we didn’t end up meeting but we still exchanged numbers. I updated him on my travels and flew back to Ottawa, Ontario and Dimi went back to Perth, Western Australia, ironically there is a Perth in Ontario, imagine my disappointment. Even though we were 18,205 kms apart, we continued to keep in contact and the more we chatted, the more we wanted to know about one another. After one week of being back home, I got a phone call from Dimi out of the blue, I was surprised but intrigued since we never heard each others voices, so I picked up and I am SO GLAD I DID!
From that point on, we started talking regularly, video calling each other, frequently updating via short vlogs and long text messages on how our days were since we were 12 hours apart. We would wake up to so much love that would brighten up our days, soon enough we realized, there was a metaphysical connection between us and in an almost instant blur of infatuation for each other we began a long distance relationship that lasted 8 months. I was already planning on going back to Thailand and visiting my family on an island where I first connected with Dimi. The plan was to go before the New Year so we dropped everything, followed our hearts and decided to meet in Phuket.
We first met in person on December 5, 2018 at the arrival gate, the connection was so pure and organic, it was as if we met each other in another life time and we’ve been inseparable ever since. We traveled through Southeast Asia together for six months and during our stay in Koh Phangan, we randomly picked a date for us to come back to Australia together where we would start a completely new chapter in our lives.
How They Asked
Unbeknown to me, Dimi asked my parents for my hand in marriage while we were living in Koh Phangan. Bold move but it payed off for him. In the time that we were in Australia, he managed to craft a beautiful engagement ring all whilst keeping in contact with my family from Ottawa.
While in Thailand, we booked to go to Ottawa during the Fall for a 3 week holiday since I hadn’t seen my family in over ten months.
For our arrival, my parents organized a welcoming party with family friends. What I wasn’t aware of, was that they also organised a surprise engagement with Dimi. As I was getting ready for the party, I hesitated between two outfits. Dimi quickly convinced me to wear the white dress to match his white shirt. I didn’t think much of it because we’re one of those annoying couples that like to match on purpose. Sorry not sorry. I also didn’t suspect a proposal because Dimi had been shutting me down lately whenever I talked about the idea of an engagement so I didn’t pick up any clues on the surprise that was to come.
Before the party, my parents insisted on spending quality time with the six of us (mom, dad, brother, his girlfriend and us) before the guests arrived for the party, it really did give us an intimate time to bond and for me to grasp this life changing moment. This all seemed normal because we hadn’t seen each other in a long time and we had a lot to catch up on. We all gathered in the living room. My dad said “Chloe, Dimi – we have a gift for you. But first, you need to stand in front of the fireplace with your hands out and your eyes closed.”
We went in front of the fireplace and closed our eyes. Of course, Dimi didn’t close his eyes. I waited patiently and said “hey babe, are your eyes still closed? what’s going on?”, in that time Dimi was retrieving the box that had the engagement ring inside of it that he cleverly hid near the fire place, I opened my eyes and Dimi took my hand. He said, “do you trust me?”. Confused, I replied ”yes” and in that moment he got down on one knee! The rest is a bit of a blur of happiness but I’ll never forget the way the fire crackled and the raw emotion during the proposal when he asked “will you marry me?”, in my euphoric state I quickly responded “obviously yes!”. It felt like a dream and during our 3 weeks in Canada I had time to comprehend our fairy tale reality.
Oh I forgot to mention… as we were in transit from Australia to Canada, Dimi got me a professional camera since I expressed to him that photography has been a passion of mine and the camera also acted as a decoy so I wouldn’t notice the ring that he had closely guarded in his bag.
