05/09/2026
The first time I met Dariga & Ewen in person was on their wedding day! We had to do all of the ceremony planning on video calls across three countries. Dariga is from Kazakhstan, Ewen is Scottish but they now live in Texas so so this was a truly international wedding! This is their story..
D. I graduated from university in June of 2019 and a few of my university friends and I were hired and sent to onboarding training in Melun, France. On the first day of training, we all walked into the classroom and realised we had been assigned seating... disappointing because we’d imagined sitting together, chatting and getting through the training as a group. Little did I know that seating chart was about to change my life forever.
E. I had originally been scheduled to attend an earlier training in Abu Dhabi, but it was delayed and then, at the last minute, changed to Paris.
D. As I walked up row after row, I finally saw my name next to someone named Ewen (which I obviously read as ‘Even’) I just walked past without giving it much thought, but eventually, I said hi, introduced myself, and finally got a good look at his face.
E. From that moment on, we became inseparable for the rest of the training, which lasted roughly two months.
First impressions?
D. I thought “well, he is cute”, but I was 21 years old and had no interest in starting any relationship during the 2 months of training. Well, that quickly changed.
E. It was my first time meeting someone from Kazakhstan. Of course, I found her very attractive and was a little nervous to talk to her, but as I got to know her, I fell in love with her personality.
D. Within first few days, we got to know each other better, and I realised whatever the instructor is saying will never be as interesting as the conversation we were having. We even got in trouble a few times cause we couldn’t stop giggling.
E. She was always the centre of attention — in a good way — so bubbly and one of those people everyone was naturally drawn to. I found myself getting a bit jealous whenever other people had her attention over me.
D. It didn’t take long for my friends to start teasing me about him liking me. I was adamant that he didn’t.
E. I remember finding her hilarious, and she had this obsession with the Korean boy band BTS, particularly one member, Jungkook, who happened to share the exact same birthday as me.
D. One thing we enjoyed was teaching each other words and phrases from our native languages. One of the words I taught him was “zhanym,” which means “my soul.” In Kazakhstan, it’s very common to call your partner or loved one zhanym and he started calling me this constantly... I blushed every single time.
One day, I finally said, “I told you that is what couples call each other. You need to stop.” He just looked at me, smiled, and said, “I know.” We were both so immature that it took us another week to finally say how we felt. It was the first relationship for both of us. We had no idea what we were doing, how relationships worked or even how we were supposed to act. But somehow we fell in love very quickly.
E. The whole training was a bit of a whirlwind and definitely one of the most memorable times of my life. By the time we left, we were very much in a relationship.
D. As the course was coming to an end, I became increasingly anxious. What are we doing next? Are we breaking up? He, on the other hand, was calm as a tree. Then the final day came. I cried on his shoulder the whole night and left the next morning. He called when I was at the airport, and I think the reality finally hit him. I was gone. We had no idea when we’d see each other again or what will happen to us, but we agreed to try.
E. I remember having this empty feeling in my chest, like a part of me was missing. The rest of the training just wasn’t the same and I wanted to leave as soon as possible. I moved to Qatar, a huge change for me, and I started working offshore on oil rigs with terrible internet (getting the excuses in early).
D. For four months, we were in a long-distance relationship. We tried calling each other whenever we could, but we lived in two different countries, worked different schedules, and were just at the beginning our careers. Neither of us really knew how to communicate through the distance and what sacrifices needed to be made.
E. It was difficult; there were times when we couldn’t talk, and there was no clear date for when we would ever see each other again.
D. Eventually, we broke up. Over the next few months, Ewen tried to reconnect. But with Covid happening, I did not want to start a relationship again only to never see him.
E. We did that typical thing of saying, “We’ll stay in contact and maybe it’ll work out” and “right person, wrong timing.”
D. We cut all contact after that. Years passed.
E. I muted her social media so I wouldn’t constantly be reminded of her, and slowly we became strangers. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about her a lot though, and whenever I did, I always felt awful.
D. I never felt what I’d felt with Ewen. He always quietly lived in the back of my mind. I thought about him almost every night before falling asleep. I often imagine us bumping into each other somehow, somewhere in the world and never having to say goodbye again.
I knew if I ever got married, it would be to Ewen.
E. The World Cup came to Qatar and I somehow managed to get tickets to the opening ceremony. I’m obsessed with football, so this was massive for me. Anyway, I went and, unbelievably, Jungkook from BTS was performing. I genuinely couldn’t believe it — it felt like our two worlds were colliding again.
D. Then, by what felt like pure universe magic, I received a message from Ewen. I was so scared to open it. I paced around for hours, coming up with millions of scenarios in my head of what it could be. Finally, I opened that message. It was simple. He’d seen Jungkook perform and thought about me. I smiled. I replied.
E. I sent a video to her, before turning my phone off to enjoy the game, but in the back of my mind I was wondering whether she would even reply. After the game, I turned my phone back on and found that she had indeed replied.
D. We started texting. The next day we talked for hours as if those three years had never happened. It was still Dariga and Ewen. Less than ten days later, I was on a plane. Seeing him at the airport, holding his hand in the taxi, and sharing that first kiss after three years apart felt magical. In that moment, I knew what had been missing from my life.
E. Things moved pretty quickly after that and, before we knew it, we were engaged, officially married in Gibraltar in October 2024, and then moved into our first home together in Texas — almost seven years after first meeting.
This ceremony was the last of three, they legally married in Gibraltar, had a ceremony in Kazakhstan and finally the third here in Scotland. The only problem was none of her family speak any English so we had the entire script translated into Russian so they could read along and understand drinking from the Quaich, and hand fasting! What a day, congratulations Mr & Mrs Beaton! ❤️
