An adventurous and romantic love story
Kayla + Salman graciously shared their love story in their own words:
We met on Hinge in January of 2018. For our first date we met for cocktails at a small bar called 600T in Shaw. We went on a few more dates, and, we knew we were meant for each other when a planned hike in Virginia got rained out and we decided to take a detour to “dinosaur land,” a prehistoric themed park full of 1960s era acrylic dinos. If we can enjoy that, we realized we can do anything together.
As a Foreign Service Officer, Salman already knew when we met that he would be leaving for his next post in Bosnia & Herzegovina in the summer of 2019. Just a year after meeting, we knew we didn’t want to be separated and made the decision to get married and move to Sarajevo together. While there was no surprise proposal, Salman did plan an afternoon on the tidal basin to give Kayla her ring.
We were initially married at the DC courthouse just the two of us. We celebrated afterward with a staycation at the Line Hotel in Adams Morgan. We had a second celebration a few months later in Salman’s hometown for our Nikah, our Muslim marriage ceremony. Our third (and final!) celebration was planned for 2020 with our friends and family who are scattered all over the world.
While COVID has interrupted our big plans but we are still hoping to celebrate safely later this year. By the time we are done, we will have had three different wedding celebrations!
A delayed wedding and living abroad in a pandemic were not in our plans, but we are still so grateful for all that we have experienced together. In just three years since we met we have planned two weddings, moved to Sarajevo, spent holidays in Paris, Vienna, and London, had Turkish baths in Istanbul, gone sailing and truffle hunting in Croatia, explored street art in Belgrade, and adopted two street kitties.
We are really looking forward to celebrating it all back in DC and hugging all of our friends and family again.
Photography: Barbarah Perttula Photography
