Our Story

It has been a long time since I have seen many of you and a lot of you have not even met Yacine yet! Here is a short retelling of our story from the last few years and how we ended up where we are now. Yacine and I met in 2006 when I studied abroad for my junior year in Aix en Provence, France. After finishing my BA in Spokane the following year I moved back to France and we lived in Aix for another two years. Yacine was working while finishing his degree in finance and I was taking classes for my MA in Middle Eastern Studies. We got engaged the summer I moved back when Yacine took me to Paris and proposed to me on the ferris wheel in front of the Louvre. It was beautiful and of course I said yes.

 We had a small religious ceremony about a month later at Yacine's uncle's house in Grenoble. Here are some pictures of my first visit to Algeria in 2007. Us with Yacine's family celebrating Eid in 2009. From left to right in the picture is me, Yacine's mother Nora and sister Sihem, then Khalil (the second oldest) with Yacine's hands on his shoulders (Yacine is the eldest), then Muhammad (the second to last) Omar (the youngest) and Yacine's father Larbi.

The next summer we had a civil ceremony at the Hotel de Ville in Aix en Provence - on one of the hottest days of the summer! Although most of our family couldn't be there Yacine's mother Nora and youngest brother Omar were able to celebrate with us and our dearest friends.

   

The next spring, in April 2010, Yacine's family threw a beautiful wedding celebration for us in Algeria. As many of you know my family's visas never came through, so unfortunately they were not able to attend. But we took lots of pictures and it was a lovely and very fun event, full of delicious food and lots of dancing to Algeria's famous Rai and classical Andalousian music. Here are some pictures below.We were sad to not be able to celebrate with friends and family here in the states but so thankful for the three occasions we did have to celebrate our marriage.The wedding included 6 dress changes show casing some of the traditional Algerian wedding styles, as well as the white dress which was the last, worn to cut the cake and finish the night.