In September of 2023, I flew to Morocco for a vacation with my mom. 
Our tour guide’s name was Aissa - he drove us all across Morocco for 9 days. 
He was funny and goofy, and a really great driver.

The irony is he wasn’t even supposed to be our tour guide - but I got mad at him on the phone before we even met, about mixing our hotels around and confusing us when we were exhausted as we had just landed and messing around our first day plans.
After that, he made the executive decision to take us in his car for the tour instead of shoving us into the bus we were supposed to be on, with 16 loud New Yorkers from Brooklyn, with an entirely different driver.
He told me this only months later, that he wasn’t actually meant to be our guide, we weren’t supposed to even have a private tour, he did this so we wouldn’t get more angry. 🤣 

One night at the riad in Marrakech Aissa and I shared tea and snacks with the hotel worker, Bachir, and we were consistently amazed while we showed each other animals on Google images that didn’t exist in each other’s wildly different countries. (Imagine never seeing a squirrel?) We had each other on WhatsApp, and when I went back home to Ottawa, we still chatted everyday. 





Short video calls to say hi turned into 1-2 hour calls everyday, talking about everything under the sun, money, culture, religion, friendships, boundaries, travel, food, struggling between our mutual language difficulties (and finding French as our middle ground) but always patient with each other, and then eventually meeting all of his friends and family via video call and getting an invite to his sister’s upcoming wedding. 


This then turned into me booking another flight to Morocco in November of 2023, for the following January to attend his sister’s wedding.

In January of 2024 I flew back to Morocco alone and scared, wondering if I was crazy, but Aissa was waiting for me at the airport, and promptly took us to a cafe for breakfast, and then later to a market in Marrakech to buy fresh vegetables and cooked me an incredible vegetarian dinner.

The next day we met some of his family friends for breakfast and we drove south to his family’s village - Mhamid El Ghizlane and stayed in Mahjoub Camp for 4 nights during the wedding ceremony of his sister, followed by camping under the stars of Erg Chegaga at Camp Al Koutban.

We spent 9 days adventuring through the desert, the mountains and the ocean. When it was my time to fly back this time, we both weren’t ready for me to leave.

I returned again in May 2024, where we explored the Atlantic coast, went fishing on a local fishing boat (Aissa’s first time ever fishing) we drove through argan forests, desert gorges and hung out with mountain goats. Aissa got pulled over by the Moroccan police because I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt properly (under my arm). I asked him to bring me to the ultra touristy restaurants which he rolled his eyes at, but obliged.

Since that first trip, I’ve returned to Morocco again and again, and we travelled together to Tunisia for vacation in October of 2024 where we faced some interesting hurdles, a new culture, and a lot of adventures together. 


We have shared birthdays, milestones, illnesses, dramas, arguments, road trips, travels, getting our tiny rental car stuck in an off road mountain in Tunisia with no cell service, setbacks, tears, and wins over WhatsApp video calls for years, and with each passing day I somehow have more admiration for his character.

Aissa embodies patience, humility, kindness, confidence, integrity, and peace with everything he does. We are finally ready to make a home together as a couple. 

We hope you’ll join us for our ceremony. ❤️