Jan + Dimitra by Suegraphy - Together Journal

I’d made a wish to meet a man, and it came true a few hours later!

Dimitra —— I’m an educational author (I develop materials for primary schools) and have been living in Amsterdam for 13 years.

Jan —— I grew up as an expat kid, living in Qatar, Brazil and Puerto Rico before coming back to the Netherlands. I lead industry policy and public affairs for a financial technology firm.

Dimitra —— We met at a New Year’s Eve party in 2011. I’d made a wish to meet a man, and it came true a few hours later! On January 10, we had our first date in a cafe. It was going well until Jan pulled me outside and started taking sparklers and a bottle of champagne out of his bag. He wanted to celebrate New Year’s Eve again because we’d met after midnight, so missed the New Year’s midnight kiss.

Jan —— More than 10 years later, I got down on one knee to pop the question. It was pretty clear that Dimitra had no clue what was happening. I asked her to marry me where we had our first date.

Dimitra —— We love Amsterdam and think it’s at its most beautiful during winter, so it had to be a December wedding. We wanted to focus on the ceremony and a grand party in a historic concert hall with different live music acts. We had a pre-ceremony reception and dinner with 26 guests in the Pulitzer Hotel’s beautiful Saxenburg Galleries room with candlelight and an evening view of the canals. After that, we walked to the wedding location, the Felix Meritis, a two-minute walk to the next canal, where the other guests were waiting. The dress code was a black tie – our guests looked ready for a ball!

Jan —— We spared no expense with five different musical acts. We also asked an illustrator to make postcard-sized portraits of our guests to take home.

Jan —— We spared no expense with five different musical acts. We also asked an illustrator to make postcard-sized portraits of our guests to take home.

Dimitra —— I knew I wanted a big bow as part of my wedding outfit but had no idea what kind of dress would look good with one. The talented Dutch designer Edwin Oudshoorn made the huge bow for me and complemented it with a bespoke dress decorated with patterns that reminded me of December with fireworks and tiny snowballs (which paired well with my Sophie Bille Brahe earrings). It was exactly what I had envisaged for my wedding dress. I was also very happy to find a matching Sophie Bille Brahe hairpin online in Italy.

Jan —— I work for a Swedish company and have been collecting frequent flier points since I started, so I used those to fly my groomsmen to Stockholm, not once but twice, to help me pick out a wedding suit. All I knew was that it needed to be a tuxedo, and I needed to stand out from everyone else. We ended up choosing a velvet double-breasted jacket, which I complemented with mother of pearl cufflinks and shirt studs, silk bow tie and braces, and Gucci patent leather shoes.