10 Incredible “How They Met” Stories That Defy All Odds.

4. They had common interests on different continents.

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“Mel and I met in July and by October we were married. We’re both hip hop photographers but on opposite sides of the world. I live in Sydney and Mel lives in New York. I started shooting hip hop 5 years ago at University when my professor told me, “look at your life and what you’re passionate about and shoot that.” So I did. Mel is self taught. He started taking a disposable camera to shows he loved and after comparing some of his images to those in magazines, he decided he was pretty good. My friend Dan, a videographer, told me about Mel’s work and said I should check it out. He thought I would find it inspiring. In 2011, I wrote Mel an email about how much I loved his photos, but It wasn’t until 2015 that we would meet face-to-face. I was in New York for the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, which Mel and I were both attending to shoot. The night before the event, we decided to meet up for drinks on the lower east side. We ended up walking the streets and taking photos until early hours of the morning. The next day, we saw each other again at the festival. I remember thinking to myself, “this is my dream guy and he’s standing right in front of me. What the hell?” On my flight back to Australia, I thought about him the whole time. We spoke every day since I left via thousands of photos, texts, and FaceTime calls. Then, Mel started asking me to marry him pretty much every day for two weeks until he won me over with a, “FINE.” Then I was like, “Shoot, now I have to plan a wedding. Really??” I had a trip planned to go to Hawaii in October for my 30th birthday, so Mel and I spontaneously decided to hijack the Hawaii trip and turn it into our wedding. It ended up being the greatest idea we ever had. We kept it simple. It was on the beach, no fuss, nothing too extravagant. A small group of my friends and family came to the wedding as they were already planning to come to Hawaii for my 30th birthday. Mel’s family and friends thought it was a prank at first because he has a reputation for being a joker. We really shocked everyone, including ourselves. It just goes to show that love is mysterious and it can completely reinvent everything you knew and expected out of life.”

A photo posted by The Way We Met (@thewaywemet) on Feb 9, 2016 at 6:45pm PST