Our Story
Our first ever photo together! Taken in Akagera National Park, a safari destination just 3 hours outside of Kigali, Rwanda. (Oct 2018)
It’s true - we met in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda. Lizzy was attending a conference on microfinance and Gagan was on sabbatical staying with Innocent and Emmanuel, owners of Inema Art Studio. We would never have met if we hadn’t convinced our friends to go with us to the weekly Inema Happy Hour on Thursday nights. Neither of us expected to stay up until 3am that night, hanging out with a crew of expats and locals, bouncing from bar to club. That same night, Lizzy asked Gagan to go on safari with her and he canceled his weekend plans to make it.
A romance began and we spent the next few months rendezvousing in Cape Town, Tokyo, Boston, Austin and San Francisco. Oh, and talking on WhatsApp. Lots and lots of WhatsApp.
Gagan carried on with his travels but found himself spending more and more time in Boston, MA where Lizzy was living. She was getting ready to move to Oxford for her MBA! Over the next year and a half, we adventured to over a dozen countries, including Ireland, the UK, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.
Some highlights:
Traversing Son Doong, the largest cave in the world in Western Vietnam
Afternoon teas, formal dinners, bike rides and pub nights in Oxford, UK
Making friends from all 6 inhabited continents during Lizzy’s MBA
Eating our way through Southeast Asia and Western Europe - from fine dining to street food to everything in between!
Seeing the Northern Lights in Tromsø, Norway
Matriculation day at Oxford! The day Lizzy officially became an Oxonian student. Oxford, UK (Nov 2019)
Sicily, Italy 2020
Annecy, France 2019
Tokyo, Japan 2019
Tromsø, Norway 2020
Cape Town, South Africa 2018
Peak District, UK 2019
Sơn Đoòng, Vietnam 2019
California, USA 2021
Texas, USA 2020
Annecy, France 2019
Boston, USA 2019
Our proposal at the top of the Claremont Hotel, Berkeley, CA (March 2021)
What love story didn’t change that fateful week in March when the world went into lockdown? We moved in together, and spent the next few months in Austin, West Virginia, the UK, and Sicily. It was a quieter and simpler time. While living in Austin, we plotted a move to Oakland, California where we eventually bought a home together!
Gagan proposed to Lizzy at the iconic Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, California. Surprising someone during the pandemic was especially hard, and Gagan almost blew it that morning when he ironed Lizzy’s clothes for her and convinced her to change before she left for her work meeting. Unbeknownst to her, Lizzy’s boss was in on the ruse. After a one-hour meeting, she was whisked upstairs to the Tower Suite where Gagan knelt on one knee and proposed. She said yes and the rest is history!