Ivan & Nadezhda

We often joke that our marriage was arranged, but it's not far from the truth. The idea to introduce us came from a conversation between Ivan's parents and the parents of Nadya's best friend, Natalia Day (nee Kouznetsova). During a visit to St. Petersburg in December 2019, the Kouznetsovs were catching up with Ivan's parents and, during a conversation about their childrens' lives, Ivan's parents noted that their son was again single and looking for "the one" to start a family with. All of a sudden, the Kouznetsovs noted that they had an idea - they knew a great woman that could be a potential good match for Ivan, their daughter's best friend, Nadya! They reached out to Natalia to send a few photos of Nadya, while Ivan's parents recruited Ivan's younger sister - who also happens to be named Nadya - to talk to Ivan about this new woman.

In the meantime...on the other side of the Atlantic, Nadya came home to Long Island for the winter holidays. She immediately went to visit Natalia, who excitedly told her that her parents "found her a man". She then proceeded to tell the story about Ivan and showed some photos. Nadya was a bit shocked and skeptical that this could ever work - he was in Russia, after all, and had never even been to the U.S. However, Natalia was persistent that Nadya should at least try. And so, just after new year's, Nadya told Natalia to just have Ivan message her on Facebook. And he did. She woke up on Christmas morning (January 7, Orthodox Christmas) to a new message. And so our online relationship began.

We clicked very quickly. From the onset, we didn't waste time, asking hard questions about values, family, religion, and the future. And as Nadya was supposed to be traveling quite a bit for work to various European countries over the spring months, we were excited to have opportunities to meet rather frequently. We decided we would meet for the first time in Budapest in March 2020, at the end of one of Nadya's work trips. We booked a hotel and bought tickets... and just four days before Nadya was supposed to fly to Europe, her trip was cancelled due to the outbreak of the COVID pandemic. With Hungary's borders closed, we thought maybe Nadia could just fly to St. Petersburg for a week, as nobody fully understood how COVID was spreading at that time. She booked a ticket, but of course, that was also cancelled.

We settled in for a long and challenging COVID ride. By that point, we were too into each other to stop. Instead, we started talking more often. And waited until Russia would open its borders, which didn't happen until August 1. So we booked a week-long beach getaway to Turkey. Ivan was already at the hotel when Nadya arrived. From the very first hug, we think both of us felt what we already knew was there all this time. But during the week, it became even clearer that we loved each other. It was like we'd known each other for a long time. And saying good bye at the end of the week felt like we were leaving pieces of each other behind.

Little did Nadya know that Ivan came home from Turkey and immediately started looking for an engagement ring. A little help came from Natalia, who kept this huge secret from Nadya! Nadya received approval from her job to work remotely from Serbia, so we decided to travel there in October, but spend the first weekend in Istanbul. It was there that Ivan proposed, during a sunset cruise on the Bosphorus. Remind us to tell you the funny story of what happened before the proposal!

With borders still closed due to COVID, and visas on hold or delayed, we decided that we would go ahead and get married, so we could apply for Ivan's greencard as soon as possible. We had already discussed that Nadya would come to Russia for the holidays, so it seemed fitting that we should just arrange a small civil ceremony there, until we could hold the bigger wedding down the road. So on January 11, 2021, we got hitched in St. Petersburg, with Ivan's family in attendance, along with our respective childhood best friends - Olesya and Alex - who served as our witnesses. We got married in the same wedding palace that Nadya's parents were married - another important piece, as Nadya's parents could not come because of the pandemic. But we felt their presence there. And they got to watch the wedding live streaming on YouTube.

While waiting for Ivan's paperwork, and slowly coming out of the COVID lockdowns, we planned to hold a proper wedding - with a church and a lovely big reception - in St. Petersburg. This had always been the plan. We purposefully waited until August 2021 to hold this wedding, presuming that Russia would resume processing visas for foreign guests. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. We were able to bring Nadya's parents and other friends for this occasion, but the majority of the family and friends in the United States and other countries were unable to join. So with this upcoming reception in New York, we hope we will FINALLY be able to celebrate with all those that could not join us for the first two occasions. Cheers!