Irina and Jon met in Austin, TX in 2010 less than 2 weeks after Irina arrived in the U.S. for her Masters at UT.

The best man Donal was already acquainted with Irina from her work at his Uncle's law firm in Glasgow when he ran into her in Austin. They agreed to meet up the following night, and each was to bring a friend.

Donal explained the situation to Jon as a double date in the making. Jon was to be paired up with Irina and Donal would be paired up with Irina's as-yet-unidentified friend. Jon expressed some skepticism about Donal's preference for this arrangement but ultimately agreed to go with the flow.

When Irina and her friend arrived the following night, Jon found the arrangement quite satisfactory. Donal was somewhat less happy with the arrangement when he realized that Irina's friend was a guy called Victor.

For her part, Irina was quite smitten with Jon right from the start due to his good looks and obvious charm.

And obviously Jon wrote this part of the story ....

Irina and Jon stayed in touch infrequently from 2010 to 2013, but the "spark" was clearly there. For a while they played a cross-country game of musical chairs, where Jon lived in New York and Irina in Austin, then Jon in Houston and Irina in Austin, then Irina in Houston and Jon in Austin and finally Irina in Houston and Jon in San Francisco. The sparks turned into fireworks in 2013 when on his 'last desperate effort' to woo Irina, Jon invited her to join him for some skiing in Tahoe. He neglected to tell her that they would be sharing a cabin with eight other guys. Awkward as it was, Irina got a chance to see Jon in his prime, trying to impress her in front of other boys. Not long after Tahoe, Jon and Irina decided that is was time to start dating while on an 11 hour drive to Big Bend Park in Texas. There was no escape from that point onward.

As a true gentleman, Jon provided advance notice to Irina on her birthday in 2014 that he would propose within the following year so she had time to consider her exit strategy. About a week before the 'deadline' Jon and Irina planned to go away to Vermont for Irina's birthday and Irina's friends were convinced that this was "the weekend". Irina's friend Jenny said it was imperative to get pampered beforehand, so they headed to the spa for NYC's famous 'bird poop' facial. In her true style, Irina was late in getting back to the apartment to get packing and head out to Vermont. When she walked in, she saw Jon suited up and their apartment full of red roses. Jon popped the question and opened a bottle of champagne. "No Vermont?" Irina said to Jon. "No" Jon responded. It was not fair to complain, Irina thought, since at least they got engaged. Jon's next statement, however, made an already spectacular evening even better, "we are going to Paris instead".