Sparks Stories: John and Alexandra
After the ring is made and the question is popped, we sit down with real ASJ couples to find out what sparked their love…
After just three months of dating, John asked Alexandra to move to Scotland with him.
John tells me the story over a glass of red wine at the ASJ design studio. He was first here six weeks ago, secretly designing Alexandra’s engagement ring, and now that the secret’s out, he’s come back to show her where all the magic happened.
The two had briefly met at a party before they would start dating, but their first encounter wasn’t anything memorable, “his brother was having a party and it was very quick,” Alix says of their first meeting. “His brother had talked about him before, we were both math majors, we had a lot in common. So I was kind of curious about him, but he had a girlfriend at the time. [The meeting] was more just like ‘This is John, This is Alix,’ and I was like “Pfft this guy’s a jerk,“ Alix tells us with a laugh.
A year later, the two met again on a blind date, set up by John’s sister-in-law. Going into the first date, Alix wasn’t sure what to think. Having met John at that party, she thought she had nothing to lose.
“I wasn’t dating anybody, so it was like what’s the worst that can happen? And I don’t know, really, after a couple dates it was like, it was pretty-” Alix begins.
“I think I remember it being the first date,” John cuts in.
“Yeah,” Alix laughs “I’m like ‘I’m having a good time, are you having a good time?!’ ”
“She says this really loud and I’m like, ‘Yes!’.”
“I’d had a lot to drink what can I say? And I was having a really good time.”
The two exchange smiles between them, laughing about how fast they fell in love. It’s so clear in talking with them how in sync these two are. They know each other so well, and are genuinely happy to be sharing even this simple moment together.
“I swept her off her feet, and after about 3 months of dating we decided to move to Scotland together, and we moved there for a year,” John jokes about their whirlwind romance.
Alix adds, “Actually a week into it we decided to do an entire road trip to your brother’s wedding. We found out they were getting married in California and so we were like ‘Well, do you just wanna go together? I mean, I’ve only known you for a week but sure we’ll still be dating in three months so…’”
“And we hit like 5 national parks on the way out and made a big road trip out of it. We survived that together, we survived Scotland together.”
“And we always heard if you can live abroad with somebody, you can get through a lot.”
When we heard the word Scotland, we just had to know more. What can we say, we’re suckers for a couple with a great adventure story. “Did people think you guys were crazy for deciding this after such a short time together? Or did they seem mostly supportive?”
“50/50 I think”, John chuckles , surely having been asked this question before.
“I don’t know about that, I got a lot of support. I mean I think a lot of people were really excited about the adventure we were going on, but then a lot of people were kind of like ‘Well, are you sure you wanna do it with this guy?’, ” Alexandra starts laughing and tells us “I told my hairdresser, two weeks in I said, ‘I’m gonna marry this guy.’ She’s never met John, so she was safe, I can say this around her cause she’s not gonna reveal that I’m like, crazy.”
“I absolutely felt the same.” John adds
“Oh yeah right, Mr. I’m-gonna-make-you-wait-a-thousand-more-days-to-propose.”
We all share another round of laughter and a few more hearty sips of wine. “So,” we intereject, “Fill us in, what were you doing in Scotland?”
“We both went back to school.” Alix explains, “So we had been dating about three months, he comes home, we’re making dinner at his place and he’s like ‘What I really wanna do is go back to school for woodworking.’ “
Alix thought this was amazing, (John is now a custom furniture designer), but admits she felt a little uneasy when John told her he had found a school that had a program for exactly what he wanted to do.
“I’m like ‘Great, what are you going to tell me this is like in Pennsylvania or something?’ and he’s like ‘No…it’s in Scotland.’ And I was like ‘I can work with that.’ And then I’m like Oh my god, did I just invite myself on his adventure?”
At first, the couple was unsure if Scotland would actually pan out for them. The woodworking program John wanted was very selective, only accepting 20 students at a time. But then, John was accepted, and as things go in the universe, all of the details they worried about just fell into place.
“So first he got accepted, and then he came and asked me, ‘Do you want to come with me?’ and I was like ‘Yeah, I do.’ “
“And then she got into the University of Edinburgh, for a master’s degree,” John proudly brags about his fiancée, “which the coordination was ridiculous. Both programs started at about the same time, as well as ended at the same time, so our visas lined up perfectly. It all just kind of worked out.”
Alexandra gleefully adds, “And we both hated our jobs, and we both could financially figure it out, so it was just kind of like, Let’s do it.”
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Congratulations to John and Alexandra, who were recently engaged with this custom diamond and alexandrite engagement ring. Both math majors, John designed Alix’s ring with symmetrical cut-outs to resemble the golden ratio and color changing gemstones in her favorite color, purple. ASJ Clients: Would you like to be featured on Sparks stories? Please email your designer to set up a brief meeting.
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