The couple: Simone Nasry (maiden name Bak), 35, works as a consultant at Accenture Federal Services in Arlington, Virginia. Daniel Nasry, 32, is a theology teacher at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Maryland. They live in Arlington with their dog, a mini Australian shepherd-poodle mix named Basil.
How they met: Shortly after returning from his family’s annual summer trip to Egypt in 2017, Daniel, then a graduate student at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, was telling his friends in the program “how amazing it would be to meet someone who understood the culture, valued it, could speak Arabic, and felt a draw toward that region of the world,” he recalls. One of his friends thought of someone from college who fit this description: Simone, who, like Daniel, is part Egyptian. Soon after their friend introduced them, they started talking every Sunday over Skype (Simone was living in Washington, D.C., at the time), bonding over their shared background and community-mindedness. She took the train to meet him in person in early 2018, and the rest is history. I don’t know how this is going to play out, Simone remembers thinking, but I’m pretty sure this is my person.
The proposal: On Aug. 17, 2019, during a trip to the Red Sea in Egypt with Daniel’s family, Daniel arranged a private meal for the couple on the beach. Daniel had previously told Simone he was not ready to get married, so she was taken aback by the flower-strewn table and their favorite songs playing in the background. “And then one thing led to another, and Danny got down on one knee,” recalls Simone. “There was a lot of crying on my part.”
The ceremony: After their engagement, Simone and Daniel planned for a May 2020 wedding, but the pandemic forced them to change course. They ended up tying the knot three times. First, in 2020, they wed through the courts over Zoom while wearing their pajamas. Shortly after, they hosted a virtual religious ceremony with family and friends. Finally, on Nov. 12, 2021, they held an in-person ceremony at All Saints Church in Chevy Chase with about 80 guests. “The wedding is just as much about the witness you make in front of your community as it is about the commitment you’re making between you two,” says the bride. The liturgy was done in a mix of English and Arabic, and the couple also included a take on the Christian tradition of a foot-washing ceremony. “It felt important as a sign of what we’re willing to do for each other,” she says.
The reception: “We wanted to have a massive dance party and just a big open space,” says Simone, and the Silver Spring Civic Building offered just that—plus plenty of opportunities for special touches from the newlyweds. Friends put together the simple greenery arrangements on each table, and the guestbook took the form of a Jenga tower, with people writing messages on the wooden blocks. “It’s a way to do something fun while we reminisce,” Daniel says. A photo booth with a glittery backdrop kept guests entertained throughout the evening, and the photo strips in magnetic sleeves served as the party favors. “There wasn’t a sense that it had to be perfect,” the groom says of the big day. “Like, we’ve already been married, and now it’s just time to really live it up together.”
The food: The pair called on D.C.-based Fava Pot to cater the buffet-style spread of Egyptian food, which included chicken kebabs, falafel and koshary, Egypt’s national dish made with pasta, rice and lentils. “It tastes like stuff you’d get in the home,” says Simone. Since the dinner was heavier fare, the couple kept it simple for cocktail hour: tables of their favorite snacks—gummy worms and dark chocolate for Daniel, granola bars and nut mixes for Simone. The cake, a decadent chocolate raspberry truffle from Firehook Bakery in D.C., was paired with other desserts—such as chocolate cupcakes and millionaire’s shortbread—made by their friend who runs GreenIsland Bakery, also in D.C. “A lot of our wedding was a reflection of the two-way relationship of our community,” says Simone.
The outfits: Simone picked out a strapless Marchesa gown from nonprofit-run Cherie Sustainable Bridal in Savage, Maryland. “It was just ornate,” says the bride, who finished off the ensemble with a veil passed down from her mother and a pair of floral-embroidered shoes handmade by an artist in Indonesia. Daniel, meanwhile, “had never actually gotten a suit that fit me,” so he took the opportunity to don a custom-made maroon number.
The music: Several musician friends of the couple arranged and performed the ceremony music—Simone walked down the aisle to “I Choose You”by Sara Bareilles, and the newlyweds left the church to “In My Arms” by Jon Foreman. When it came to the reception, “people were dancing so hard the entire night that they forgot to drink,” recalls the bride. After the couple’s first dance, to John Legend’s cover of the Beach Boys classic “God Only Knows,” guests boogied (and did the limbo) to a mix of Arabic dance songs and international pop tunes. “It was just like, ‘Come as you are, and dance in whatever way makes you feel free,’ ” Daniel says.
The honeymoon: The May after they said “I do,” the pair jetted off to Bonaire in the Caribbean for a 14-day honeymoon. “It’s best known for scuba diving, and we got certified to scuba dive,” says the groom—but partway through the trip, the newlyweds got COVID. “Then we just stayed inside until the time where we were better and watched movies about scuba divers,” Simone says with a laugh.
Vendors: Ceremony, All Saints Church; cake, Firehook Bakery; desserts, GreenIsland Bakery; DJ, DJ Hussam; dress, Cherie Sustainable Bridal; flowers, Danisa Flowers; food, Fava Pot; hair and makeup, Alina Karaman; photo booth, Efotoz; photography, Jessica Nazarova Photography; reception, Silver Spring Civic Building; suit, Ezra Paul Clothing.
This story appears in the November/December issue of Bethesda Magazine.