OUR
Story
Before we tell you everything we'll experience together in Ecuador, we'd like to take you on a brief journey: how we met, what connects us, and how we're now celebrating our big adventure together - our wedding.
How we met
During my studies in Peru, I travelled alone to the Galápagos Islands during a semester break. One afternoon, after a long bike ride to a tortoise reserve on Santa Cruz Island, I was completely exhausted under the blazing sun. As nightfall approached, I wondered if it was really a good idea to keep going all the way to the other side of the island to see a beach someone had recommended me that morning. In the end, I went anyway, not knowing that this choice would soon change my life in the best way.
When I finally reached the beach, I went straight into the water. A little further out, about 20 metres away, there was a group of three women. One of them immediately caught my eye when she was laughing in surprise at how many fish a pelican right next to her could swallow.
After my swim, too tired to ride back to my hotel, I asked a pickup driver if he could take me and my bike. By chance, it was the same taxi Moni and her friends had booked. Sitting in the back, I got to know them a little, and they invited me to join them for dinner that evening. After dinner, we went to a bar where Moni tried to teach me how to dance salsa, and later we ended up on the beach, drinking a beer.
The very next day our paths separated, but that brief encounter was the beginning of our story together.
Long-distance relationship
Two months after Moni and I met, I kept my promise to visit her in Quito, and during a trip to Baños we became a couple. For the next three months, while I was still living in Lima to finish my Master’s degree, about 1,500 kilometers lay between us. After my return to Germany, we were separated not only by an ocean but also by a seven-hour time difference.
For a long time, we could only see each other during vacations. Each goodbye became harder, until it eventually became clear that we had to make a choice: either commit to building a life together, or ending this wonderful adventure. To gain clarity, I took three months of unpaid leave and went to Ecuador. Those months were beautiful and confirmed our wish to take the leap and get married.
But fate tested us again. At that time, a wedding was impossible in both Ecuador and Germany due to bureaucratic obstacles, and our Plan C — Las Vegas — fell through with the sudden onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
When I then had to return to Germany on short notice because of the pandemic, all our plans collapsed, and we were left not knowing what the future would hold.
Unification in Germany and wedding
My unplanned, early return from Ecuador was followed by many months of uncertainty. Our plan was for Moni (and Isa, of course) to come to Germany on a wedding visa, but there was virtually no air traffic between Germany and Ecuador, and all embassies and immigration offices more or less ceased operations. When it eventually became possible to apply for a wedding visa again, it was still impossible to take a mandatory German course in Ecuador because the Goethe-Institut was still closed.
When all the formalities were finally resolved and the marriage visa was approved, we had less than three months left for Moni to quit her job, Isa to withdraw from school, both of them to board a plane to Germany, and for us to get married here. If we hadn't been able to get this done within that timeframe, I would have had to arrange Moni's repatriation, and she would have had to return to Ecuador.
So it happened that we "had to" get married in Germany at very short notice and without much planning. While we had always envisioned a small wedding in Germany, we hadn’t imagined it would be limited to just four guests: Isa, my parents, and Natalia (our interpreter), as it was the case due to the COVID-19 restrictions.
And now?
Now there is another wedding and this time with a really big party!!
We always wanted to have a small wedding in Germany and a big wedding in Ecuador. However, due to COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, high inflation, and some surgeries we both had, we kept putting it off and thought: It's now or never!
We would be delighted if as many of you as possible could attend our wedding. We are of course aware that this will be very difficult for many of you, and we do not hold any grudges against anyone who cannot or does not want to make the long journey.
Since the wedding will not be easy logistically for all of us, we would like to spend the whole weekend with you at our wedding location.
You can either travel with us from Ibarra to our wedding location the morning before the wedding, or even better, you can travel with us a few days beforehand.
We'll try to explain all the details on the following pages. Hopefully, any questions you may have will be answered in the FAQs.
