Emily & Greg’s Swiss Alps Wedding

Imagine exchanging vows against the backdrop of the majestic Matterhorn, one of the world’s most iconic mountains. That dream became a reality for Emily and Greg, who traveled all the way from the USA to the picturesque Swiss Alps for their unforgettable elopement!

How did you two meet? What were your first impressions of one another?

Greg: Soo…. that’s a bit of a funny story! Emily and I actually first met after she walked into my PT clinic with foot/ankle pain that she developed while trying to become a runner during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our relationship was of course professional at first, but I’ll admit she was damn cute! Over the course of the summer of 2020 we became friends, and then confidants in each other while we both dealt with similar personal circumstances at the time.

After she was discharged from my care in the late Summer/early Fall of 2020, we decided to give dating a go. We figured why the hell not! We had already gotten really close over the course of the prior 4-5 months.We made it “official” a couple months later, and haven’t looked back since : )

Emily: COVID came and all the gyms were closed, so I decided to pick up running to workout. I don’t know why I did that; I truly hate running and I’m quite terrible at it, as evidenced by me quickly rolling my ankle and needing to go to physical therapy. When I arrived to my first appointment I was pleasantly surprised by how cute my PT was! I quickly realized he wasn’t just niice to look at, but also really easy to talk to as well. This was during lockdown and so these appointments were the highlight of my week; I loved going to exercise and talk with Greg about anything and everything. We were able to chat about so many different topics with ease and able to relate to one another’s struggles as we both seemingly were going through similar life problems at the time. As the summer went on, we became good friends and our sessions involved a bit more talk therapy than physical therapy! By the end of rehab, luckily my ankle was healed because he then asked me out paddleboarding! From that first date, I knew that we had found something extremely rare and special.

Tell us a funny story relating to your wedding day or relationship!

The trip over to Zermatt took us over 32 straight hours of travel start to finish. Planes mostly, then lots of trains once in Switzerland. It was an unbelievable journey, but as you might imagine also an exhausting one. The day of our wedding, I woke up super excited to conquer the day. After all, we had just stayed awake for over a day and a ½ traveling, so we could do anything! I turned over to wish my beautiful bride-to-be a good morning, and what did I see?? Well I won’t bury the lead. She was crying. Big, heaving sobs. Happy tears? No, she was EXHAUSTED!!! And just wanted to “lay in that bed forever”. Fortunately, life together had prepared me well for this exact moment. Time to shine! After a short time I was able to rally the both of us out of bed, we both shook off our fatigue (coupled with lots of espresso), and we went on to have the best day of our lives!

Describe a hurdle you had to overcome in your relationship or during your wedding planning.

We’ve had to overcome a lot in the 4 years we have been together. Related to the wedding, we certainly had our fair share of drama related to family support of us getting married and how we were going about it. It’s hard to be the first in your family to get married, let alone to not go about in in a conventional way. We knew that we were very loved and although it was frustrating and saddening at times, there was always the understanding that the pushback stemmed from a place of love and everyone’s own idea of what was best for us. A lot of it really just came down to our limitations as people. We’re all biased. We all have limited perspectives. We see what we want to see and not things as they actually are. You can’t fault anyone for that. But we believed in each other, knew this is what we wanted, and trusted one another. And now we can happily say that we were right! We are so happy together and our collective families now 100% believe in us too.

Any special ways you incorporated your family or family history into your wedding day?

Let’s lead with this, we love our families whole heartedly, and are BIG on family! But we made a conscious decision to center our wedding around us. It was really important to the both of us for this wedding to feel intimate. A true love letter to each other. And to not have to shed an ounce of worry or thought about anyone else besides ourselves that day. So no family was included in the wedding itself. We did FaceTime our families later in the evening to share our experiences with them, and when we returned home, we celebrated with our families at mini “receptions.” These were super fun and everyone absolutely loved seeing our wedding photos and hearing our wedding day story!

What is the best thing you’ve learned from one another?

Greg: The best thing I’ve learned from Emily is how to identify and overcome my insecurities, admit and acknowledge my faults, and how to manage this not just across time but in real time. To stumble less. To love more. It’s been absolutely freeing, and has improved not only our relationship, but my entire life. I’m incredibly grateful to her for that. Emily: Greg has helped me learn how to express myself and my emotions in a constructive way. Instead of bottling things in, he always encourages me to share what I’m feeling and I know that he will really listen and not be quick to judge. Through this, I’ve learned how to handle conflict in a more constructive way so that our bond only strengthens. Together we support each other and push one another to grow and improve, in more ways than once.

What is your favorite thing about each other?

Greg: I really love her ability to hold me accountable. It’s enabled me to improve in a countless number of ways throughout our relationship, and we are both better for it.

Emily: His thirst for improvement and growth are infectious and admirable, and his entrepreneurial spirit never ceases to amaze me. I’m so proud of him and know that he is capable of anything he sets his mind to. I also love his humor and how he makes me laugh every day!

What was your favorite part about planning your wedding?

We both agreed here that the absolute best part about planning our wedding was how little we had to actually plan. We worked with Erika Hernandez who owns The Greatest Adventure, and she was AMAZING! Erika helped us every step of the way, and quite honestly took care of pretty much everything. Logistics, decor, flowers, Michelin dining, desert, location scouting, the procession itself, etc. We of course had input, but she really did an excellent job and were so amazing to work with. The day of, she was there the whole time to keep us on track and shepherd us to the next location, but also allowed us space to enjoy the day together intimately. Erika and her team truly made it the best day of our lives!

If you had one piece of advice for other couples, what would it be?

The only thing we can offer is our experience. We made a concerted effort to stay true to ourselves and our relationship. We were honest about what we were looking for from each other and that day. We did what we could afford. We centered the wedding around us – not others, not others expectations, and not traditions. And after doing all that, we had the best day of our lives! Our families survived and now not only love, but admire our relationship and how we decided to get married.<br /> So our advice would be to do just that, but with whatever you dream this special day could be for you.

What is the most honest thing you can say about love?

That it’s personal, intimate, and multifaceted. It’s a feeling and an action. It’s the one thing that can make you feel the best, and the worst. And it’s worth it!