Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary – we’ve been married eleven years. It sounds like such a long time…although I would like to point out I was very young when we got married! I was only 24 years old and now when I meet a 24 year old, I am blown away that I was married at that age. But guess what, it worked for us!
Our story of how we met and ended up marrying less than a year later is pretty cool, so I thought it would be fun to share with you.
You already know I’m an Aussie, but how did I end up living in NYC? I came to New York as an intern at MoMA, in the Summer of 2000. I was supposed to be here for 3 months, but as the end of my internship approached, a job opened up in the department I was working. I applied for it, got it, then extended my work visa as long as it would go. Fast forward to a year later and my time in the US was soon coming to an end.
A friend from MoMA was leaving for a new job, so a group of us had a little going away party for her in the Museum cafe. My dear friend Maggie invited a couple of her friends with her, one of whom was Fran, who she knew from college. Maggie and I conspired to set Fran up with a girl we worked with at the time and I played the part of facilitator. I sat near them, trying to get them to start talking. The problem was, every time Fran said something, my friend all but rolled her eyes, while I couldn’t take my eyes off him!
I definitely did not want to meet a guy 6 weeks before I was due to fly back to Australia for good, but we were soon joined at the hip. We spent almost every day together from then on. A couple of days before I was flying back, we had “the conversation” and decided we would try out a long-distance relationship and see where it led. We were madly in love, but the huge distance (not just miles, but time and money) between our respective homelands was overwhelming.
I got on a plane from NYC to Australia on September 9, 2001. I landed in Sydney on September 11, 2001.
Hours later, the towers came down.
Immediately I got on the phone. I tried calling a friend whose mother worked at the Pentagon. I tried calling a friend who worked on Wall Street. You couldn’t even get a connection to the US. Then I called Fran’s cellphone and we were immediately connected. Both of us crying and hysterical, we decided immediately that life was too short and we should get married.
Everyone thought we were crazy.
We spent Thanksgiving together that year, thanks to a surprise (incredibly generous) gift of a plane ticket from Fran’s boss at the time. Then, in February, Fran flew to Australia and officially proposed to me with his grandmother’s ring.
For the next 6 months, we were stuck in the immigration system, waiting for my fiancee visa to be approved so I could fly back to the States and get married. Finally I got the visa, flew back a week later, then we were married 8 weeks after that.
The woes with the immigration department continued. The system was so backlogged and broken following September 11, that we had a hard time getting a green card for me, which led to me not working for our first year of marriage. Finally it was official and I was free to travel, so 3 years later we renewed our vows in Australia.
We’ve been through a lot of experiences in our eleven years of marriage. Some have been wonderful, like traveling the world together, or finding out we were going to be parents. Some have been awful – Fran almost dying springs to mind! But I wouldn’t change a minute of it. I’m so blessed to have found my soulmate, to have married my best friend, to have such a wonderful, thoughtful, funny, handsome, smart husband by my side no matter what.
And what would an 11th Anniversary be without sharing this gem of a video? ENJOY!!
I can’t express how happy I am to have met you and how lucky I am to have married you and started a family with you. Thank you for being so amazing in every way. I love you. xo
Love you too! xo
And I can’t express how happy I was when Fran refused to stop talking about you, worrying about you, talking about you, being frustrated over the green card, talking about you, and proving to everyone who knew him that he was happily, hopelessly, head-over-heels. Before I met you, I knew you two were perfect together and you still are. He might have heard from an old guy who is maybe a bit wiser than him that it would get better every day, forever. You two have made that old guy feel pretty smart. Nothing but love for the wonderful Pizzani family.
Now say “crikey”!!
Crikey, Tom! 😉
What a terrific story! It’s so funny how some people just connect and others don’t. It’s so wonderful that your long distance relationship became a together forever relationship. 🙂
Carla recently posted…This Isn’t Prince George’s Baptism
Thanks Carla! It truly was one of those ‘When you know, you know” cases. 🙂
Happy anniversary Carly and Fran! Beautiful story to tell your kid!!! And very moving… 🙂
Sil recently posted…I should be ashamed…
Thanks, Sil! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it. And I hope your tapering is going well…not too long now!
You’re right! 🙂 Can’t wait to jump up the plane on Wednesday!
I love your story – I’m so happy you shared it with us!!! Both of your wedding pictures are gorgeous!!!
Kim recently posted…Some Thoughts Are Better Left Unsaid
Aww, thanks Kim! Looking back now I can’t believe I was a blonde…
Awwww what a great story, thanks for sharing! At the ripe old age of 25 I still haven’t found my Prince Charming…good to know that age will someday seem young in retrospect! 😉
Gabby recently posted…The Best Free Things to Do in NYC
Yes, you will look back and think you were a baby, Gabby! 😉 And of course you’re not, it’s just when you’re clinging to the last months of being ‘mid-30s’ instead of ‘late-30s’, it’s reassuring to think of early/mid-20s as VERY young!!! ha ha ha
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