Valentine’s Day is finally here which means your Instagram feed is probably flooded with flowers, kisses, dinners and romance! #loveisintheair.
Today, all over the world, users are expressing their love with hearts and gifs and stickers to accent their stories. Thank you, Instagram!
To celebrate Valentine’s in the Middle East, Instagram has chosen three creator couples that got married because of the app, and today, they celebrate their love online along with millions of others. So, while we all love an Instagram Story, check out how these actual love stories happened in some of the most Insta ways possible.
Shahan & Melisse – CairoFoodie Couple
According to Shahan Terzibashian it all started with an innocent comment on January 31, 2013.
“I was scrolling through Instagram and stumbled upon a post of a silver bracelet that had the name “Melisse” engraved on it in Armenian letters. Being Armenian myself, I was super curious because the post also had #egypt, which made me think Melisse might be living in Egypt as well. I went ahead and commented on her post asking where it was taken.
She replied, saying it was in Istanbul and she’s an Armenian living in Turkey. She gave me her name; I gave her mine and we hit it off right from the start. Two days into the conversation, I felt that she was ‘the one,’ and made the decision to meet her face-to-face.”
Conveniently, Valentine’s day was just two weeks away – the perfect excuse to meet up right? Melisse was going on vacation in Beirut, so Shahan decided to meet her there for the first time on Valentine’s Day. Bold!
“We did long-distance for a year where we visited each other every month. During that year, we called each other “Insta boyfriend” and “Insta girlfriend” because of how we met, and how special Instagram is to us! We still celebrate January 31 as our Instaversary.”
A year later, he decided to propose to Melisse on Valentine’s Day at the airport as she arrived for her visit in Cairo, and then they got engaged in Istanbul. Naturally, Instagram got a special mention on the cake pops at the wedding!
As newlyweds, they set up a shared Instagram account and do what they love: cooking, baking, and enjoying food. The account got really popular.
“Long story short, Instagram is where we actually met and where we work together as a couple,” said Shahan.
Hassan AlSheikh & Nina Abdel Malak
Hassan AlSheikh has a show with his best friend on YouTube called “Zan O Hassan” which covers music releases in the Middle East and the wider region.
“We wanted to collaborate with Nina Abel Malak to open the YouTube space in Dubai. We approached her to check her interest and after patiently waiting, she finally agreed. We were extremely happy and flew from Dubai to Beirut for a pre-production meeting with Nina and her team. I was immediately blown away and wanted to stay in touch with this amazing soul,” said Hassan.
Filming took place on March 19, 2018 where Nina delivered an amazing performance that Hassan filmed for his vlog and BTS.
After the launch of Nina’s episode, Zan O Hassan decided to send Nina flowers to thank her.
“We sent Nina flowers from Dubai to Beirut, and when Nina received them she posted a picture thanking us on her Instagram account. I took advantage of this and dropped her a comment about the flowers hoping that she would notice.”
She had 1.5 million followers at the time – it was a shot in the dark but worth it. A few days went by (ok, it might’ve been a few weeks) and then she responded!
“I DM’d her (which they call sliding into her DMs these days) but it took her a few days to get back to me. I thought she was not interested, and of course the internal drama began. I decided not to speak to her anymore,” said Hassan.
Then it happened!
“I received an Instagram notification ‘@ninabdelmalak sent you a message’ and guess who instantly responded?” I mean, he HAD to!
This time it was different though. They spent hours talking on Instagram and exchanging posts and stories. Fast forward a couple of years later, they are married, and Nina is expecting their child!
Anas & Asala
To hear it from Asala Maleh, it was love at first follow when Anas started following her on Instagram. Anas was already creating his comedy sketches and political awareness content, while she was gaining recognition through uploading music covers of her own.
“We were both very supportive of each other’s work and quickly became huge admirers, leading to tying our knot on February 28, 2017!”
Since then Anas and Asala have been producing content together and growing their community.
“We also started exploring different types of content together and documented our most important life accomplishment – the birth of our wonderful daughter Mila!”