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Tatiana and Joe
Who: Tatiana Read, 36, founder/publicist, the Knot Group. Joe Callaghan, 41, stay-at-home dad
Location: Toronto
Relationship status: Married since 2014
Tatiana: We dated in university and then we broke up. We never really thought we'd reconnect, then, when we did, things moved pretty quickly. I was never the girl who wanted the big white wedding. I said to Joe, "Do you want to plan a wedding, or do you want to get married now?"
Joe: I pictured myself having one of those big blow-up weddings. And then I knew I wanted City Hall. I'm not sure if it counts as an elopement.
Tatiana: Valentine's Day was just a couple of weeks away, so we just said, "Let's do it then." We normally are not big Valentine's people. Like, we don't even exchange gifts.
Joe: As soon as they pronounced us man and wife, I handed her a card. I had inscribed, "To my wife on Valentines Day."
Tatiana: Ha! You didn't inscribe it – the card already said that.
Joe: Oh, right. And then, after the ceremony, I thought it would be fun to meet the mayor [former Mayor Rob Ford]. He had quite a bit of notoriety at the time.
Tatiana: To be clear: We weren't Ford supporters. It was just the idea that he was the sitting mayor on the day we got married.
Joe: Right. So we got the photo.
Tatiana: That's how we shared the news with our family – we sent the picture to everyone.
Kameel and Arij
Who: Kameel Nasrawi, 46, editor-in-chief of The Migrant newspaper. Arij Nasrawi, 34, stay-at-home mom
Location: Toronto
Realtionship status: Married since 2007
Kameel: We came to Canada from Damascus with our two children on Jan. 29, 2016 ,with one suitcase each. We spent a few days staying with my brother and then we moved into our new house [in Toronto]. It was totally empty. We had a small table and one mattress on the floor for our whole family.
Arij: Valentine's Day was just two weeks after we arrived. Back home, I would always prepare a cake to celebrate, but we didn't have anything in our kitchen yet. I told Kameel to please go buy a cake from the store because I didn't want the kids to think we didn't have anything. We went to Kameel's brother's house to celebrate with family.
Kameel: And then we came home – to our mattress. Believe me, though, we were happy. Valentine's was not about gifts for us.
Arij: We were just so relieved to be safe and to know that nobody in our family was in danger.
Kameel: And I saved a little bit of money. Ha-ha. I'm just kidding.
Arij: I'm still telling him he has to catch up for missing that one year.
Kameel: We've been married for 11 years and I missed one. Women never forget.
Arij: Last year, we were a lot more settled, so I was able to make a cake and Kameel got me a beautiful angel pendant.
Kameel: I told Arij that I wanted a new mattress, but she says not yet.
Cynthia and Tim
Who: Cynthia Ferguson-De Groot, 47, interior designer. Tim De Groot, 50, founder, Fine Living Concierge
Location: Toronto
Relationship status: Married since 2013
Cynthia: Being married to someone with a birthday on Valentine's Day can be a lot pressure.
Tim: I'm like that kid with his birthday on Christmas. Can't one day be just about me?
Cynthia: I knew I wanted to do something big for Tim's 50th, and he had said he didn't want a party or anything like that. Our favourite place in the world is Eleuthera [in the Bahamas]. We were married there and we're both major beach people. I decided to book a trip and then I had to keep it a secret, which was not easy. Tim is not one of those husbands who doesn't listen. He is a major details guy.
Tim: We joke that I'm a bit of a P.I., but in this case, I didn't suspect anything. Even looking back, there weren't any clues. The night before we left, she just told me to pack a bag for somewhere hot. I thought maybe Miami or L.A.
Cynthia: I wanted it to be something he would really remember. The thing about relationships is that, over the years, the birthdays and anniversaries and holidays start to blend into each other. On the actual Valentine's Day, I got up early and wrote him a message in the sand that gave some hints about our plans for the day. I was lucky it was low tide, so it stayed for a while.
Tim: It was totally amazing. We had a picnic on the beach. I will never forget it. Now I've got two years to plan something for her.