Connor squeezes my hand and smiles at me. “Nervous?” he asks.

“No,” I admit. “Not really.”

“Maybe you should be. This is a big step.”

I shrug a little bit, my white dress blowing in the light breeze. “I guess. But this just feels like the next thing, you know?”

He smiles softly at me. “I know.”

Connor looks so damn handsome in his suit. I get up on my toes and kiss him softly and he grins at me. We’re standing outside of this old stone church, probably older than anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s practically crumbling, or at least it would be if it wasn’t under pretty constant renovation.

Inside, the priest is setting up, or at least I think that’s what he said. My German isn’t great, and he doesn’t speak a word of English, so we’re getting by with hand gestures and smiles. He’s a nice man in his late seventies, probably too old to run this parish on his own, but he seems pretty spry and capable anyway.

“What’s his name again?” Connor asks me after a short silence.

“Father Rochat.”

He nods and looks straight ahead. “Rochat. That’s right.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t think it matters. I doubt he knows our names.”

Connor grins a little bit. “Good point. I don’t even know how I managed to convince him to marry us.”

“Neither do I, frankly. Your German is worse than mine.”

He laughs and nudges me. As we stand and wait, I am starting to feel a little nervous. I didn’t think I would, but the gravity of the moment is starting to become pretty apparent.

We’re getting married. For real. Connor already bought the land we’re going to build our house on, and now we’re just getting married to make it all official. What started out as a little vacation is quickly turning into something much more.

I never expected to fall in love with Switzerland. I knew it was a beautiful country, but I had no clue just how beautiful. Of all the places we traveled through, for whatever reason the Swiss countryside felt the best. And so neither of us wanted to leave.

My mother wasn’t happy about that. She thought this was just going to be some short trip, and eventually we’d come back home. Instead, now she’s dealing with her new company along with having a daughter that lives in an entirely different country. Fortunately for everyone, she’s starting to look into expanding the business internationally, and Switzerland is her first stop.

I just wish she could be here for this. She’s such a big part of our story, it just feels wrong that she can’t be here. Then again, we’re getting married in a tiny village in the Swiss countryside, nobody can really be expected to show up. She has a company to run and she can’t exactly disappear to a tiny village for any reason, even if it’s the wedding of her only daughter.

I look back at Connor and try not to think about it. In the end, nothing else matters right now. The only thing I want to think about is standing up at that alter with Connor and saying the words that will connect me to him forever. I just want to start a family with him and be happy, that’s all I want.

The bells at the top of the chapel start to chime. I look up and try to spot the gleaming brass, but can’t see anything.

“Electronic,” Connor says.

I laugh a little bit. “Seriously?”

He nods. “Most church bells are just big loudspeakers these days. Apparently it’s the same out in the Swiss countryside.”

“Seem odd, having electronic bells coming out of a steeple that’s just so old.”

“I know,” he says. “But you know what they mean, right?”

“What?” I ask, looking at him.

He suddenly has a very sly smile on his face. “It’s time to go in.”

“I thought we were waiting for the priest.”

He shakes his head. “Nope. Bells are the signal.”

“Signal…?” I ask, feeling a little lost.

“Come on, Syd,” he says. “Are you ready?”

“Of course I am. But what’s going on?”

“You’ll see.” He squeezes my hand and then walks forward.

He presses open the front doors, these enormous wooden and wrought iron things, and we step inside. The chapel is dusty and dim, and it takes a second for my eyes to adjust to the candlelight.

And then it hurts me. There are hundreds of candles scattered all over the room. Plus flowers, gorgeous flowers, all types of flowers. I recognize some of them as being local wildflowers, but there are so many more that I’ve never even seen before. The ancient wooden pews are all well worn and oiled and covered in flowers and candles.

The priest is standing up front, smiling at my reaction. I gape all around me, totally shocked. We start to walk up the aisle, and I don’t even notice the person stop out of the pews until I practically slam into her.

“Mom!” I say, and then I throw my arms around her.

Mom laughs and hugs me back. “Surprise, she says.

“I can’t believe you’re here!”

I hug my mom tight, and I’ve never been so happy to see her. I was just thinking about how much I wanted her to be here and now suddenly she appears. I had absolutely no clue that she was coming.

“You can thank Connor,” she says. “He talked me into this.”

I slowly let her go and then turn to Connor. He’s grinning at me. “Happy?” he asks.

“Happy,” I say. “And the chapel?”

“Father Rochat helped with that, but it was mostly my doing.”

I shake my head, suddenly putting it together. “You asked about his name to throw me off, didn’t you?”

He nods. “Just in case you suspected something.”

“You’re too much.” I laugh and kiss him.

“Save that for the ceremony,” Mom says. “Come on. Are you two ready?”

I nod and Connor grins. “Let’s do it,” he says.

We finish the walk down the aisle. Mom sits in the pew up front and Father Rochat beams at the two of us as we stand face to face. He directs us to hold hands and then he begins to speak entirely in German.

I look at Connor and he can’t help but smile the whole time. Neither of us have any clue what Father Rochat is saying, though he’s going on and on in German, probably doing the normal wedding ceremony. I start giggling and have to bite my lip to stop myself.

Finally, Father Rochat stops speaking and looks at Connor expectantly. Connor looks at me but clearly has no clue what to do. After a second, Father Rochat makes a circle with his hands, and Connor finally gets it.

“Should have learned German,” he mutters as he takes the ring out of his pocket. He slides it down onto my finger and then Father Rochat looks at me. I do the same thing, sliding the ring onto Connor’s finger.

Father Rochat says something more in German, and finally he finishes again, spreading his hands wide.

“I think I know what that means,” I say to Connor.

“Time for the kiss?” he asks me.

“It’s time.” I smile at him as he takes me into his arms and kisses me deeply.

When we break apart, Mom and Father Rochat both clap and we face them, beaming proudly. Connor thanks Father Rochat while I hug my mother, trying hard not to let myself cry too much.

The ceremony was quick and simple and entirely in a language that I don’t know, but it was perfect because it was with Connor. We could have been married in a broken down truck for all I care, just so long as I was with him, everything would be okay. But of course, that’s never enough for him, and he had to go and surprise me by making the chapel beautiful and by bringing my mother here. He’s too perfect and I almost don’t deserve him.

As we head out of the chapel, Father Rochat waving goodbye, we start back down the road.

“Now what?” I ask Connor, holding his hand. “We didn’t really make plans.” I look at my mother apologetically.

She just smiles. “Don’t worry. We’ve got one more surprise for you.”

I frown. “What is it?”

“Come on,” Connor says. “Over here.”

Parked against the curb of the tiny village lane is a small black Jeep. “A present for the two of you,” Mom says. “I figured you’d need something good at driving off road.”

I laugh and touch the black paint, grinning. “It’s perfect.”

“Come on,” Connor says. “Get in. There’s more.”

“More?” I ask, shaking my head. “This is too much already.”

“One last thing,” he says as we all pile into the jeep. It seats four, which is good, since we’ll have a family soon enough. Connor gets behind the wheel and starts driving, and I quickly realize that we’re driving out to the land we bought.

For the last couple months, we’ve been renting a little room in the hotel in town. It’s not outrageously expensive since the village rarely gets tourists, so we’ve been living well. I haven’t been out to our land since we decided to stop camping and live somewhere a little more modern with actual running water and toilets that flush.

We head down the dirt track that leads through our land. Connor pulls off the track about half way up, winding up a small hill until we pulls over. We climb out and he gestures.

“There it is,” he says.

The dirt all around the top of the small hill has been cleared out along with the trees and the underbrush. The top has been leveled out and a gray concrete slab is sitting there, about the size of a comfortably large home.

“What is this?” I ask.

“It’s the foundation for our house,” he says. “What do you think?”

“It’s big,” I say, a little surprised.

“Of course. We’re not living in some shack in the woods. And houses out here don’t have basements, which is why it’s a concrete slab.”

I smile and shake my head. “This is amazing.”

“It will be,” he promises. “And soon it’ll be ours.”

“Come on,” Mom says, pulling some things from the back of the Jeep. “Who’s hungry?”

Mom spreads a blanket out on the concrete and we sit down as she puts out some food. The three of us laugh and joke and smile on my wedding day as we sit on the foundation of my future home with Connor.

As we sit and laugh, I look out over the land we’ve purchased. Because we’re at the top of a hill, the view of the forest that stretches off around us is absolutely breathtaking. I bet in the winter when the leaves drop we can see for miles in all directions.

I feel a buzzing in my chest and my stomach, and I realize that it’s pure joy. This is what I wanted all my life, even if I didn’t’ know it. We’re living in a foreign country where we barely speak the language, but none of that matters. I have Connor, and every single day is better than the last.

Besides, my mother is going to be visiting a lot, I can already tell. She seems so happy to be out here. She’s not normally so relaxed, and it surprises me that she’s taking to this so well. She hasn’t even looked at her phone once. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her ignore her phone for so long.

Here we are, the three of us. I can practically feel the future sitting here with us and the family Connor and I will have. I can’t wait to have kids with him and to fill up this beautiful house with memories. We’ll get jobs and learn the language and make a life for ourselves in this beautiful Swiss countryside, away from the world, just the two of us.

I don’t know how I got so lucky, but life is beautiful and I’m so happy.