Little did our parents know when they booked a Cruise for both of our families in 2014 that it would lead to us meeting, starting a transatlantic relationship, falling in love and now getting married. It’s amazing how easy a long distance relationship can work when the only difficult bit is forever saying goodbye. The details of our initial meeting are very hazy for both of us and although we’re unsure exactly how or when we met, Joanna always reminds me that she does remember meeting “the best looking Cowling” first and thankfully at some point that night his oldest son managed to meet her too. After our initial meet we kept running into each other for the rest of the cruise and we are not sure if this was fate, a coincidence, or the fact that we both spent most of our evenings drinking at the Martini Bar…but whatever the reason, Joanna's Dad has regretted not giving her money to gamble with the rest of the family in the casino ever since. After a few evenings of chatting we exchanged numbers and said we would keep in contact after the cruise but I don’t think either of us ever thought it would lead to where we are today. Mark’s Dad likes to tell the story that as we left the ship Joanna told him “I’m going to marry your son one day” and although he believes this was her intent right from the start, we have never had the heart to tell him that Joanna has said this to lots of parents in the past so she was bound to get it right one day.

After the cruise we stayed in contact and I kept telling Joanna that she was welcome to come and visit me any time she wanted. After a couple of weeks Joanna made the amazing/crazy decision to fly to England for a long weekend and this was the beginning of our transatlantic relationship. We travelled back and forth to see each other numerous times and the more time we spent with each other the more we realised how amazing it was. As our relationship took shape our friends couldn’t understand how things could ever work out for us but I think we both knew that what we had together was special and wherever we were headed was worth all of the time zone changes and time apart in between. As time went on we started to plan how we could be together all of the time and Joanna made the brave decision to try and move to England. The road to moving over was not as smooth as initially expected and after a declined six month holiday Visa (due to paper work errors) and many hours of being questioned at London airports (due to her declined Visa) we decided the best route to getting Joanna over would be through her Italian heritage. We began researching family trees and collecting documentation as being an Italian Citizen would mean that Joanna could live and work in England due the free movement act that comes with the UK being part of the European Union... At some point along the way I had realised that life without Joanna was not something that I ever wanted to experience and I started thinking about how and when I was going to propose to her. I had always wanted Joanna to get her Italian Citizenship before proposing but the process was taking so much time that I just could not wait any longer. Planning started in my head and after months of researching diamonds, turning off my phone tracker (so Joanna couldn’t see me in jewellery shops), having secret phone calls with her Dad and searching for the perfect proposal location the big day had almost arrived.

If you know Joanna you will know that she has an amazing knack for finding out plans and spoiling surprises and this was one surprise that she could not ruin. The details were kept a secret from everyone close to Joanna except for her parents as I could not risk anyone letting anything slip. Joanna was landing in London on the Saturday evening and we had a flight to catch to China on the Tuesday, because of all of the travel I knew that Joanna would not want to do anything on the Sunday except stay at home, re-pack and relax. Due to this I had to come up with an elaborate plan to get Joanna out of the house early on a Sunday morning, dressed in nice clothing and without her questioning what we were really doing. Thankfully our good friends Alan and Mags helped by playing along with the fictitious plan to meet them in London for the day to have lunch at a Michelin Star restaurant. After multiple fake text conversations between Alan and I (that were screen shotted and sent to Joanna) Joanna believed that we were meeting ‘Malan’ (Alan and Mags) to take the place of their other friends that had cancelled lunch plans with them a few days earlier.

We made the journey to Hampstead Heath where we were meant to be meeting Alan and Mags at a nearby pub but as we arrived at the train station Alan called to say they had found a really nice Instagram spot near the pub and we should meet them there instead. We put the location into Google maps and headed off to meet them at the Hill Garden and Pergola at Hampstead Heath. When we arrived Joanna initially wanted to call Alan and Mags to find out where they were but after I convinced her not to she started walking around shouting “MALAN, MALAN!” trying to find them, I told Joanna that we should continue walking around and taking in the scenery and we would bump into them at some point. As we got closer to the spot that I had chosen for the proposal I saw the photographer standing to one side as Joanna was still looking for Alan and Mags. My plan was to walk around and say a little speech to Joanna but as I turned around I saw a group of around 10 people walking towards our currently empty proposal spot and knew I had to abandon the speech and drop onto one knee as soon as possible. I said a few short words to Joanna and started bending down on one knee and she instantly went into shock and started saying “What are you doing?” “Are you F’ing joking?” “Are you sure, are you sure?”. Once she realised I was being serious the swearing stopped and the tears started and that was it for the next hour or so. We then had to get as many photos taken as possible in between the tears and constant questions about how this had happened without her finding out. After we took a number of photos and I explained the past few months’ worth of lies we went to a local pub for champagne and appetizers. Later that evening we went to our reservation at the Michelin Star restaurant (without Alan and Mags of course) and enjoyed an evening of eating and drinking.