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Lawrence and Stephanie met on 7 October 2017 at Lawrence's 31st Birthday Party. Lawrence likes to say Stephanie crashed the party; Stephanie likes to think she was invited by Bridesmaid Lauren Domb! There are no photos from that night, but here is one from their first date at Scott Steinberg's birthday party the following Saturday night at Loop Bar. Photo credits to Josh Domb (Lauren's husband) who must have realised he was witnessing something special unfolding!
After the first of many walks in Epping Forest, Lawrence said, "I would love nothing more than for you to be my girlfriend," and they became 'official'. Lawrence had actually already told his parents that Stephanie was his girlfriend even before he had asked her - bold!
Their first trip away together was a very cold and snowy weekend in Oxford. The journey home in Lawrence's trusty Toyota Yaris was treacherous, but they made it back with minutes to spare before the Manchester derby kicked off. This was the moment when Stephanie realised that as much as Lawrence loved her, that love would always be shared with Manchester United! To be fair, on that same weekend, Lawrence learnt about Stephanie's predisposition to "hangry-ness" so it was possibly a fair trade-off!
HANGRY: [ hang-gree]. Adjective. Slang.
Feeling irritable or irrationally angry as a result of being hungry.
On their third date (a yoga class followed by an Italian meal in Devonshire Square), Stephanie told Lawrence that she would be going abroad with work for 6 months, maybe to Singapore or Australia. Lawrence's face dropped and understandably, he wasn't so happy about this idea!In March 2018, much to Lawrence's dismay, Stephanie jetted off for a 6-month secondment in Dubai. However, the time flew as not only did Lawrence visit Stephanie twice, but he also embarked on a "fat-biking" tour to the Arctic Circle in Finland and ran his third London Marathon. Meanwhile, Stephanie lived the high-life in Dubai, enjoying yacht parties and beach clubs every weekend. Despite the distance, their relationship grew stronger and they spoke on video call for hours every day.
In May 2018, they started their trend of last-minute holidays, booking a trip to the Maldives less than 2 weeks before departure! Only a 4-hour flight from Dubai, it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. They spent most of the week floating about on a huge watermelon-shaped lilo! Stephanie taught Lawrence to snorkel and despite a few panicky moments in the strong currents, the marine life was amazing to see. You won't be surprised that they also did a lot of eating and burnt it off by walking countless times around the 1km perimeter of the island.
It was a very romantic trip, almost too much so for their first real holiday! One night they were sitting on a beach sofa-swing listening to live acoustic music and Lawrence said "if I had spoken to your dad then this would have been a great time to ask you to marry me". Thankfully, Lawrence hadn't spoken to Neil since they had only been together for 7 months!
In September 2018, Stephanie returned from Dubai and they were very happy to be reunited and it felt like the right time to move in together. The logistics of the move were not planned but Lawrence decided on a random Tuesday night after work to pack up his flat and make the move that no (Jewish) man has ever made before: from NW London to Essex! Even more ludicrously, he gave up his bachelor pad for a pale pink bedroom in a flat next door to his girlfriend's parents! It must have been love!
Due to the spontaneous move, they had tea and toast on their first night living together. Thankfully, their dinners have improved since then, especially since discovering the wonders of the Instant Pot!
Lawrence's 32nd birthday was much more tame than his 31st, so much so that he actually remembers it!
The first celebration involved squeezing in about 30 of his friends into their small one-bedroom flat for lunch. It was the first time that they had hosted a large event. Lawrence particularly showed his inexperience in this field as he listed out at least 20 different dishes that he wanted to serve. Stephanie managed to negotiate the menu down to a more reasonable level but they still completely over-catered and were cooking and cleaning up for days.
The following week, Stephanie surprised Lawrence with a family afternoon tea. Lawrence had been out for the morning and didn't have a clue that when he got home, his whole family would be at their flat to celebrate. He thought it was such a lovely plan until he discovered that Stephanie had sneakily arranged for Lorraine and Neil to 'pop in' from next door. It was the first time their parents met and needless to say, they got on very well and didn’t stop chatting.
In November 2018, they went on an adventure to Thailand. Stephanie suggested that the Thai islands would be best explored by hiring mopeds. Initially, Lawrence thought this was a ridiculous idea, but Stephanie somehow convinced him, as well as the moped shop, that she knew what she was doing, grossly exaggerating her prior experience (or lack thereof)!
True to form, Lawrence was a hesitant passenger, frequently shrieking "don't tell my mother!" or "slow down!". Eventually, he acclimatised to the bike and decided it would be more manly to drive. Obligingly, Stephanie agreed and put her life in his hands. After a few tetchy moments, the tables turned and Stephanie was the one shouting "slow down!" as Lawrence hit their top speed!
Whilst normal people would fly back to London directly, Stephanie and Lawrence decided that it would be a great opportunity to 'pop to China' for a 14-hour layover to see pandas on their return journey. Although in theory this was a great idea, the reality was most definitely not. They arrived in Chengdu at 4am and had no idea where to go when they left the airport. Nobody spoke a word of English but somehow they managed to navigate the Chinese subway system to get to the panda park.
When they arrived, it was still pitch black, freezing cold and the park was not opening for the next few hours. The arctic temperature was unbearable, and they were totally unprepared. Being in the middle of nowhere, they decided to huddle in a telephone box, unsuccessfully trying to keep warm until the park opened. Although the pandas were very cute, the experience was totally ruined and they were more interested in finding hot drinks than pandas. The only food available was from street vendors selling hot yams and corn on the cobs. Never has a hot yam been so well received! Enough was enough, the adventure was abandoned and they spent the remainder of the 14-hour layover in a windowless hotel room, desperately trying to thaw out!
On 13 January 2019, Stephanie experienced her first Man Utd game against Spurs at Wembley Stadium. Spurs dominated much of the game but remarkably, De Gea (the Man Utd goalkeeper) made 11 saves and United won. It was an incredibly tense game, and Stephanie spent the whole second half hiding behind her hands saying "it's too much, I can't watch"! Lawrence was very proud to see Stephanie get so emotionally invested in a game of football!
To top the day off, on the way home they picked up a whole rotisserie chicken from Kosher Deli and devoured it all for dinner (with some spinach on the side, obviously!).
Although Lawrence was happy to see Stephanie sharing his passion, Stephanie now always reminds Lawrence of their deal that if Stephanie supported Man Utd, Lawrence would learn to scuba dive and ski... watch this space!
Every time Stephanie and Lawrence travel, they write a holiday blog for their families. In March 2019, they went on a Caribbean Cruise. Here is an extract from day 1 of their blog:
"You may have thought in the past that Lawrence and I have some crazy ideas and tendencies, or you may have thought that as a lawyer and an actuary we are a fairly risk averse and straight-playing couple. Well, this email and the blogs to follow might help you make up your minds on that conundrum...
As you may or may not have known, we have been searching the internet high and low over the last week for a good last-minute sunny and non-rainy deal. I don’t think our deal can get more last-minute than booking a Caribbean cruise at 11.30pm with a flight the following morning at 9am. As well as being a bit of a snap decision to book this cruise, the logistical operation for the 9.5 hours between booking and take off has been a military one. It included booking flights to Fort Lauderdale, packing, sorting out the flat, applying for ESTAs, booking airport parking, getting Lawrence travel insurance, finding a place to stay in Fort Lauderdale on the first and last nights, and all of the check-in admin for the flights and cruise.
Getting the ESTAs has been the worst part - the form filling was fine but only at the end of the payment process does a big red warning flash up telling you to apply at least 72 hours before travel! It was slightly disconcerting, although Lawrence would say that I was ‘hugely disconcerted’ and had ‘extreme levels of anxiety and worry’ (thank you doctor Lawrence for the diagnosis). After having gone to bed at 2am without approved ESTAs, Lawrence woke up 3.07 and we checked our applications which finally had been approved! We could finally feel excited although the adrenaline still kept my heart beating just as fast and kept us awake!! Alarms went off at 4am. We didn’t need them and we hadn’t really slept anyway so it wasn’t hard to get up.
In the car on the way to the airport I hotspotted the internet from my phone to my laptop to find Lawrence some travel insurance, and I tried to check-in for our flight but that didn’t work since you need an address in the US to check-in - which we don’t have! So old-school standard check-in for us it will be!
Lawrence has been great / impulsive / mad (?) at booking the cruise and sorting the flights. To be honest, I don’t even know which countries the cruise goes to, what the ship or our room looks like, or any other detail. All I know is the most important thing - there’s a running track on the deck!! In fact I have just learnt that neither Lawrence or I have even looked at a photo of our cabin."
Unbeknown to most people, in early May 2019, Lawrence and Stephanie flew to Bermuda for Lawrence to have a job interview, and to decide if Bermuda could be a place they would like to live and work for a while. Lawrence smashed his interview and was offered the job!
During the trip, Stephanie had 12 meetings in 3 days and found that getting a job in Bermuda would be possible but challenging. After enjoying boat trips, meeting the Jewish Community, eating lots of nachos, exploring beautiful beaches, and inadvertently participating in the Bermuda End-to-End walk, Lawrence signed on the dotted line and started work for his new company remotely from the UK the day after landing back in England.
Lawrence had planned the evening to start with a private beach yoga class followed by a sunset proposal and a teppanyaki dinner on the beach. The yoga teacher liked them so much that she made the class longer than scheduled, unknowingly ruining Lawrence's sunset proposal plans!
It did not matter though, as the proposal was still magical, even in the dark. It was "white night" on the island, with candles lit all along the beach and champagne on the house. It could not have been a more romantic setting although Lawrence was slightly embarrassed when all the other hotel guests started applauding.
Neither of them remember the exact words that came out of Lawrence's mouth, but most importantly Stephanie said "yes" and there were lots of tears of happiness and celebrations throughout the evening. When they got back to their water-villa, they ran off the terrace jumping into the sea for a late night dip! They always joke about how Lawrence's smart watch showed his stress being at the highest level that night.
The next day, they were still buzzing and enjoyed re-living the moment in order to take proposal photos in daylight - although poor Lawrence had a very sore knee from going down on one knee so much on the sand!
They didn't tell their loved ones for 18 hours or so, keeping it secret in order to enjoy celebrating just the two of them before embarking on endless video calls to share their exciting news!
In the few months after getting engaged, they were spoilt with celebrations, with three L'Chaims (two in Loughton and one in Manchester), an amazing engagement/leaving party and a celebratory afternoon tea with a Vort ceremony in a marquee at Albion Park. Many of you are still talking about the mouthwatering salt-beef sandwiches at the party!
It was an incredibly happy time for them and their families, and they feel so lucky to have properly celebrated with all of their friends and family, especially with the benefit of hindsight.
Lawrence moved to Bermuda in early August 2019, and flew back 4 weeks later for their engagement party and, as he puts it, "to pick up Stephanie". Stephanie had to stay in England until September to finish her training contract to qualify as a solicitor and start wedding planning!
On September 11 2019, two days after their engagement party, they said a tearful goodbye to Lorraine at the airport as they embarked on their exciting new adventure together.
Earlier that summer, Stephanie and Lawrence had spent months gathering all their worldly possessions to ship to Bermuda in a container. Lorraine and Neil kindly let them take over their dining room, which was filled to the brim with flat-packed furniture, toilet rolls, tinned food, and pasta…the way they packed, one would have thought Bermuda did not have any shops!
The container arrived quickly and safely and it was very strange to find all of their furniture from their previous flat now sitting in their condo in Bermuda. Stephanie spent the next week unpacking and setting up their new home (thankfully the condo had a huge larder) whilst Lawrence continued to settle into his new job.
Aside from having to shelter from Hurricane Humberto that hit Bermuda in their second week on the island, their first few months of living in Bermuda were great, enjoying the idyllic Bermuda beaches, boats trips, sunshine and even taking Salsa lessons!
Sylvia and Howard came out to visit in November 2019. Stephanie got a scooter license and bought a scooter, and much to Lawrence and Howard's surprise, she persuaded Sylvia to come for a ride! They all had a great day out watching the PGA tour golf and Sylvia and Howard enjoyed their breakfast every day on the balcony.
In late November 2019, Stephanie and Lawrence then had a fantastic holiday to Miami and the Caribbean, and were lucky enough to have some bonus days in Miami courtesy of American Airlines bumping them off their flights.
In December 2019, Lorraine and Neil also came to visit, closing out the year Bermuda-style, with champagne on the beach on Christmas Day, and a New Year's Eve BBQ and 'party' at the Town Hall (which, in all honesty was quite underwhelming but they still had a nice time).
The trials and tribulations of 2020 started with Stephanie struggling to get a work permit, and continued with her rupturing her achilles tendon in February 2020. She was stuck in a cast and moon boot for over 4 months, which was an absolute nightmare! Being such a great fiancée, she still let Lawrence go on a trip to NYC the weekend after her accident, leaving her hopping and bum-shuffling around trying to fend for herself!
The year took another turn for the worse when covid hit. Being in lockdown meant that, like everyone else, they were together 24/7... but they are still together to tell the tale! They tried to make the most of the situation, doing jigsaws in the evenings, and participating in countless zoom quizzes! They went outside for walks (on crutches or with the knee scooter) when they could, and Stephanie (like 99% of the world) developed a bread-baking obsession which has continued to this day.
Lorraine and Neil came to visit again in August 2020 and during a beautiful beach walk, they all had a fairly depressing discussion about the state of the world and decided to delay the wedding 20 months from November 2020 until June 2022.
After a year of waiting, Stephanie's work permit was finally approved and she started her job in August 2020! Mazel Tov!!!
By December 2020, Lawrence hadn't been to England for 16 months, and Stephanie for 11 months. Although most of the world was reluctant to travel, they decided to go back to England for 5 weeks as their jobs allowed them to work remotely.
Although Stephanie and Lawrence arrived in Tier 2 restrictions, London was swiftly moved into Tier 4, and then into lockdown! This meant that they could only spend 24 hours seeing Sylvia and Howard, who had to rush back to Manchester.
Most importantly, Stephanie managed to see all her grandparents, albeit socially-distanced, and Lawrence met his niece Ruby for the first time, also from a distance. All of this was all quite bittersweet, but overall they were very grateful to be home to see everyone.
Having an apartment adjoining to the Driver house turned out to be extremely convenient, as they were welcomed into the Driver 'bubble' during lockdown. They were grateful to be able to go walking in the forest every day but were spied on by the nosy neighbours (see photo taken by Neil).
Despite the freezing cold, many of their friends ventured to Loughton to see them and go out for winter walks in Epping forest - even with restrictions in place they did well to safely catch up with so many people. They especially loved exploring the forest with the Margolis family and climbing on tree logs with their niece and nephew Freddie and Joella (who will be a very cute page boy and flower girl at the wedding).
When they flew back to Bermuda, Gatwick airport was completely deserted. There were only two flights out of the North Terminal that day and bizarrely the tiny island of Bermuda was one of the destinations!
Some interesting facts and figures from our road trip adventure in June 2021 from Seattle, Washington to Glacier National Park, Montana:
Total elevation climbed: 10,687m (the height of Everest is 8,849m).
Total distance hiked: 235 miles (the distance between our childhood family homes is 211 miles).
Total steps walked: 511,709
Total distance driven: 2,405 miles (driving from London to Tel Aviv is 3,057 miles, so we didn't quite get there, but London to Tel Aviv in a straight line is about the same distance we drove!)
