Dan and I first met in June 2010 in Porto Alegre, Brazil at a party thrown by mutual friends. We were both new in the city, so we were up for something that would allow us to meet new people. There were only three months I was living there. I moved to Porto Alegre from my hometown Brasília in order to pursue a Masters in urban and regional planning. Dan was there for the summer to study Portuguese, which was going to be useful for his future fieldwork in Brazil that he planned on doing to obtain his Ph.D. in anthropology.

We very quickly became friends and started spending time together. During the whole month of July I was traveling because it was winter break for us there. I went back to Porto Alegre for a weekend before going to Brasília for Father’s Day and that was when we finally got together. The next week Dan was in Brasília he met all my family and we had our first road trip.

We don’t really have a proposal story. We knew that we wanted to be together and we chose D.C. to be the city. When those two things were decided, we didn’t really need a proposal. But last year, while I was still living in Brazil, before starting the process of the Fiance Visa, we met in Cartagena, Colombia. It was when we were together and really decided how our marriage was going to be.

We decided to have a very small ceremony without our families because the distances of traveling for his family and for mine would be very different. We thought it wouldn’t be fair to my family to travel so much more.

From the couple, Reinaldo and Dan

Vendor Credits

Photographer: Chris Ferenzi Photography
Cake: The Cake Room Bakery
Catering: Maple DC
Floral Designer: Lee’s Flower Shop
Location: Meridian Hill Park

Submitted via Two Bright Lights