Juliane Jendrollik & Joshua Collins

Juliane came to Northern Kentucky in 2010 to work as a nanny and planned to return home to her native Germany after a year. That was before she kept running into Josh at a local Starbucks. Four months after her arrival in the United States, he offered to help when her car broke down outside the coffee shop.

Their first date took place two days later, and a second date followed two days after that. "Right then we said, that’s it," Juliane says. "No more dates. We’re going to be together." 

Juliane briefly returned to Germany after her year as a nanny and the couple maintained their long-distance relationship, but soon returned. On her last day of school at Northern Kentucky University in December 2014, Josh took her to the Cincinnati Zoo for the Festival of Lights. She wondered why he seemed so nervous and was rushing to find the Cat House, her favorite area of the park, before it became dark. Eventually he gave up, and chose a bridge as the spot for his marriage proposal.

On June 3, 2016, Juliane’s family and about two dozen friends from Germany joined the couple’s American guests at The Syndicate in Newport for a 1940s-themed wedding celebration. 

"I love that era," she says. "It was just so classy."

Juliane says the venue’s vintage façade and interior décor made it the perfect place for their retro-style reception, and she dazzled as she danced the night away in a Grace Kelly-inspired dress she won in a contest sponsored by Wendy’s Bridal.