Guest Writer Nico and Emily met on Tinder in 2016 while he was on a Master’s placement at the University of York, and despite time spent living in different countries, their relationship grew with York remaining a special constant throughout. Now living in Kent and planning their wedding, Nico proposed outside York Minster on Emily’s 30th birthday – the perfect place to celebrate their journey together.
“Nico and I met on Tinder just a few months before I graduated in 2016. He’d just come over to the UK from Germany on a Master’s placement in the Department of Chemistry – it was only years after our first date that he admitted that his English wasn’t fluent at the time and he hadn’t understood half of what I was saying! We arranged to meet at Vanbrugh College then walked down into the city where we bonded over drinks at Dusk and the House of Trembling Madness (of which there was only one back in the day!).
That led to a second date (a run along the Ouse) and a third (a Eurovision party with friends) and before we knew it, he was meeting my parents at graduation. I told him from the start that it was never going to be a long term thing and in the year that followed I moved to London, Derbyshire and Austria and back; he to France and Germany. Yet somehow, we remained a couple and York once again became our home.
Over the next four years, I found a job I loved at the Environment Agency, Nico worked towards his PhD in Chemistry and both my sisters graduated from the University of York (copycats!). When covid hit, we ended up locked down with my parents for four months. I distinctly remember the day that Nico passed his viva in their living room and we celebrated with champagne and homemade Black Forest Gateau – I was so proud!
We now live in Kent but for my 30th birthday last year, Nico booked us a weekend in York and proposed to me outside of York Minster. I can’t think of a better place for him to have done it! Now we are in the midst of planning our wedding and hope very much to return again to York soon.”
