The knot Magazine...

REAL COUPLES

lauren & jeff OCTOBER 1, ALEXANDRIA, VA

Lauren Svitil (a 31-year-old librarian) and Jeff Fasceski (also 31 and a civil engineer) definitely know how to take their time. After living all over the world—Jeff in Japan and Lauren in Singapore, among other places—the couple finally first met through a mutual friend, but the timing wasn’t right for ether of them (she had recently broken up with someone, he was dating someone else at the time). It wasn’t until a month or so later that Jeff asked Lauren out, and they went on to date for seven years before Jeff popped the question on Christmas Day. “We had been talking about marriage for a while, and I gave her every chance to get rid of me,” Jeff says. “Now she’s stuck with me!” Though happily engaged, wedding plans were put on hold while Lauren studied for her Masters degree and worked full-time. “There was so much going on at first that wedding planning would have been impossible,” she says. But after a two-year engagement, Lauren and Jeff finally made it to the altar. The longtime pair wed in an intimate outdoor celebration at a historic home in Alexandria. —K.W.

Photography by Zoya at Stone Mansion;