Alexa & Dave
Alexa, 22, was an advertising account manager at DDB Philippines in Manila, Philippines. Dave, 28, a business analyst at Dish Network, had a three-month assignment to Manila and asked a mutual friend to introduce him to someone who could show him around there.
“We started talking online about traveling, photography, music, video games; I thought he was interesting, so we stayed in touch,” smiles Alexa. “The night of his arrival in Manila, we found that we were in locations separated by only a short walk, a pretty amazing coincidence! I knew we had to meet, and we talked for hours. He started picking me up after work for dinner before he went to work on the graveyard shift. Even if we only had about one hour to meet every night, he still made the effort to brave Manila traffic and see me before he went to work. We got along really well and started going on adventures around the Philippines together.”
“Alexa stood out to me as a creative person; we shared a lot of the same interests,” Dave reveals. “I was in a new country for only a few hours and I can’t imagine the chance that we would have been in walking distance of each other when hours earlier we were thousands of miles apart, all unplanned. We had to meet right then. After we sat down with each other for the first time we lost all concept of time and talked for hours on end. We had so much in common and it all happened naturally after that.”
Dave’s assignment ended, and he and Alexa began their long-distance relationship through daily Skype conversations. Before long, Alexa traversed the ocean and settled in Denver.
“Alexa and I had a unique situation living on opposite sides of the world,” smiles Dave. “Because of this we obviously had to talk about getting married before she ever arrived in the U.S. I knew that she wanted every girl’s dream, a surprise proposal. And even though our situation was different, I still wanted her to have the proposal she always dreamed of. Due to the circumstances this was hard to accomplish!”
But Dave planned well for his proposal on May 9, 2015. Alexa’s mom was in the U.S. to visit, and the three of them were shopping. Dave suggested that they take a tour of the Denver Clock Tower; Alexa was reluctant, wanting to shop, but Dave was more convincing. “A tour guide was waiting by the lobby. She said the group accompanying us was running late so we should just go ahead. She then took us to the top of the tower and left while we enjoyed the view. I got so excited since it was the first time I’ve ever been inside a clock tower and the view was amazing.
“Dave knew how to distract me; he gave me the camera so I could take photos of the view while he was getting down on one knee behind me. I turned around and he asked,
‘Will you marry me?’ My heart melted.
It was a different kind of feeling and I couldn’t stop myself from crying! Of course, I said ‘Yes!’ No wonder we were the only ones in the tower! He closed it down just for us and even got a photographer–the tour guide!”
Alexa and Dave had a simple, intimate wedding on May 27, 2015, and a reception at home with family. “We will have our big garden wedding in the Philippines next year,” they smile. “We’re excited to spend our life together, planning to travel a lot, and are thankful that now we don’t have a limit on the time we can spend together!
