How We Met
His:
The first day I saw Christina was actually NOT the first day we met.
After she walked into the elevator at my client site in Abu Dhabi (and incidentally, into my life), I couldn’t stop thinking about her.
I even went to the floor she stopped at to find her (stalkerish – I know) but to no avail.
I thought I had lost her forever.
Two days later… my friend Yasmeen and I were having a late lunch when lo and behold, enter stage right my future wife.
Hers:
I was on a two-week long business trip to Abu Dhabi from Washington, DC.
I remember stepping into the elevator at the client site, excited for a big meeting later that day. I remember confidently stepping out only to realize it was the wrong floor when my colleagues laughingly called me back, and I remember sheepishly glancing to the side to see if anyone had noticed. I thought nobody had.
Towards the end of the week, I remember sitting down for another client meeting at 2 PM, famished, because I hadn’t had breakfast or lunch. I took work so seriously that everything else just fell by the wayside.
That day, however, something compelled me to stand up and walk out of the meeting just as it started.
I had to eat.
I hustled up to the cafeteria, grabbed a plate, and prepared to take a bite.
Just then, somebody said “excuse me,” and I sighed internally, turning to address whoever was keeping me from my lunch.
how they asked
My fiancé, Rashan, is Sri Lankan-Canadian, born in Dubai, and I am Chinese-American, raised in Germany, China, and the US. Our kids will be Chinese-American-Sri Lankan-Canadian, and so will our wedding!
The proposal was ridiculously romantic and such a surprise. My fiancé, Rashan, and I are both consultants in Dubai. Our lives consist of work, parties, more work, and travel. We’ve been together just under 2 years but have seen 9 countries, 22 cities and stayed at 38 hotels together, so I thought this was just another last minute vacation.
Our work/travel schedules are too hectic to plan anything more than 1-2 weeks in advance so we booked our flights on Saturday the 7th and flew out on Tuesday the 10th. I was certain there was no way he could plan anything in just 3 days.
The night before the proposal, Rashan was on his phone and said casually, “Hey I just found this hidden gem – apparently it’s the best bridge to watch a sunrise from, want to go? We can get some nice photos!”
I said heck yes, 1) I love photos and 2) I love sunrises. I again did not think anything of it because we’ve woken up to watch sunrises in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Thailand, and Seychelles – it’s our thing.
When we arrived at the bridge shortly before 7 am, there were already 3 people there – two guys with a ukulele and a woman with a big camera. The guys were singing a random Italian song and the woman was taking shots of the water, so I pulled out my selfie stick in preparation for the sunrise.
Rashan put his phone down with video recording on and I was like oh you’re going to record the sunrise, smart! And then suddenly… the guys started singing our song, Lucky. It took me about 5 seconds to figure out what was going on because the singer, uke player, and photographer had not been enough to tip me off!
Rashan pulled out a bunch of papers and started the proposal and I promptly burst into tears. I had 2 papers to answer him with- but both said yes- so we had a good laugh as he put the ring on me.
Despite the early hour, there were even people watching and cheering us on from their balconies – it was all so romantic.
