Whoever follows us on nextstop.croatia If you're already following us and watching our stories, you've already heard a little bit about our story. But I don't think I've ever told anyone about our shared life journey in such detail.

According to the title, the article shouldn't be long. But because of the short period before the wedding, a lot more happened afterwards. :-)

But I won't keep you in suspense any longer and will rewind to the year...

Because there, or actually a little earlier, Marko and I regularly and by chance went to parties together.

My parents and his parents had the same friends and we were there together for birthdays, communions, confirmations, weddings, etc.

And somehow so many celebrations took place in one and the same restaurant: Tapachgarten in Stuttgart.

I always remembered his mom and the Ritter Sport that she brought with her. Because back then there were little test bars with Smarties in them. And that was a highlight for me. :-)))

Apart from that, I can't remember much else in connection with Marko - and he can't remember much else about me. There were just videos of us playing together. But apart from that, we really can't remember anything.

It was August 2011 and I had a friend suggestion on Facebook called 'Zemo Kovacevic'. At least that's what he called himself back then. But the face looked familiar to me.

A few days passed before I remembered who he was and simply sent him a friend request. Then we started talking. But really only on a friendly basis.

I had just gotten out of a really toxic relationship and was totally devastated. And Marko was in Hamburg.

Somehow we started to understand each other more and more every day, wrote a lot, spoke on the phone every day and used MSN (yes, that was something else) and we simply noticed that we had the same views on relationships. We didn't want to waste our time on pointless relationships with people who weren't serious. We wanted to start a family straight away.

In October, Marko came to my area and we went on a road trip to and through Hamburg and to the Baltic Sea. And that's where we got together. It just worked out.

After the trip, I took my flight from Hamburg to Stuttgart in the morning (which I almost missed!) and in the afternoon I had to go back to work. Before I started work and was still standing outside with my colleagues, I got a message: "I've booked a blabla-car and am on my way to Stuttgart."

He had packed his things, quit his job and since he was only temporarily staying with a friend anyway, he was simply sitting in a car on the way to me.

Okay, not entirely to me. He went to his parents, but because of me.

After a few days I gave him an application at my company and he secretly slept in my room. Sorry to my parents at this point. ;-))))

But it had to be done because he didn't have a driver's license and his work was near me.

And somehow we came up with the brilliant idea of ​​looking for an apartment together and moving in together. So I repeat.

We first contacted each other at the end of August, the road trip at the beginning of October, and by mid-October we were already living in an apartment (back then it was still easy and quick). I came back from Hamburg on Wednesday and a week later we had simply moved in together and he already had a job at my company.

Then it was November.

I came home. Marko wasn't there. I saw a bag behind the window with rings in it.

On February 10, 2012, the time had come in the Sachsenheim town hall. We hadn't really given much thought to the surrounding details. We had chosen the 'Tapachgarten' restaurant - simply for sentimental reasons - where we then went to eat with the family.

And the next day we flew off on our first trip together - a week to Egypt. Our parents had given us that as a gift.

Of course we had a lot of wonderful days. But there were also an incredible number of days with problems.

Not that you think we've always been as relaxed and easy-going as we are now.

We worked a lot on ourselves and yes, up until the church wedding everything was at a positive peak.

By then we had changed jobs, looked for apprenticeships, moved out of our apartment and lived with my parents for a year. Then we renovated our apartment, moved out of my parents' house and Marko lost his apprenticeship as a tiler and then found a new job, but only on call.

We were barely making ends meet, honestly.

When the date of our church wedding was set, about a year before, things started looking up for us. But only because we felt good. Marko had been out of a job again in January 2014 and I had also lost my job in April because of the closure.

But hey, we felt really good! :-)

At that time, we spent a lot of time together, especially doing sports together. And then came the wedding.

We had to change everything two months beforehand because Marko's entire family lives in Croatia and none of them could come. And then only 80 people out of 400 showed up. A hall was superfluous. We spontaneously celebrated at a Greek restaurant in Fellbach with a beautiful view.

But even the wedding didn't go as planned. Someone hit and run with our car on that very day and we had a bad day because the left side of our car was dented. It rained in the morning of the shoot and my dress was completely dirty.

Then we weren't allowed to let the band play for very long because it was too loud. And a lot of things in the restaurant weren't as agreed.

Phew.

But in the end, none of that mattered to us. We had put off the wedding for so long that we just wanted to get married in church. We didn't know where we would get married and how many people would come. Croatia or Germany. That's why the church wedding was only two years later.

If we were to do it again, it would be an elopement. Just the two of us in a beautiful place.

We couldn't really go on a honeymoon back then because we didn't have jobs. So we went to Italy for three days. We wanted to go to the sea.

And the shortest route to the sea from us was Genova. So we went there spontaneously and spent a few days in and around Genova.

Short trip to Italy

In August 2014, however, we both started an apprenticeship at the last minute. Marko had the opportunity to learn to be an industrial mechanic through the AfA and I spontaneously started the apprenticeship as an office management clerk.

In the first year, everything was actually OK. We learned a lot, spent a lot of time outside the house and went out a lot on the weekends.
My supervisor was a nightmare (I can say that publicly now), but the academic part went really well for me. I got very good grades throughout and stuck with it until the end.

Until 2015 came.
To be precise, August. If not even a little earlier.

From then on, nothing was ever the same again.
Never again.

Preview:

The continuation of "In love, engaged, married - in just 6 months!" follows in the next article.