How Lauren Gottlieb and Tobias Jones Found Love Behind The Screen

Love has a way of sneaking in when the world feels most uncertain. For dancer and actor Lauren Gottlieb, it happened in the in-between…in those suspended pandemic days when the clock moved differently, when our worlds had shrunk to our screens, and connection was both harder and strangely easier to find. “Everything slowed down,” Lauren recalls. “Studios were closed, dance reels looped endlessly on social media, and I was constantly thinking about how I could collaborate with other artists. That’s when I found Tobias Jones.”

Lauren chanced upon a video of a young professional in London. That night, she messaged him, half in curiosity, half in instinct. “It felt like fate. We started chatting, collaborating on edits, and even working together on campaigns. It felt like I had this amazing creative partner halfway across the world, in London,” Lauren recalls. What followed was not just a collaboration across time zones, but a unique creative partnership that slowly developed into something infinitely more permanent. When Lauren could finally fly to London, the city conspired, and they received opportunities that prolonged her stay. And what had begun as a professional partnership blossomed into a personal one. They clicked instantly when they met, and Lauren shares that, “Tobias felt like someone I wanted in my life forever.”

Their engagement followed the same instinctive rhythm—intimate, thoughtful, and deeply personal. Lauren had designed her engagement ring in New York, so she knew the moment was coming, just not when. Tobias chose a villa overlooking the turquoise waters of Aruba as the setting. “I had a feeling,” she laughs, “but when it actually happened, it was unforgettable.”

Their wedding, a week-long celebration across Italy, unfolded like a multisensory love letter—light, sound, scent, and memory woven into one. The festivities began in Rome, on Lauren’s birthday, with intimate gatherings that felt like a gentle overture. Her friends whisked her away for a bachelorette celebration, while Tobias spent time with his family and closest friends. Laughter spilt into sunlit streets, long meals drifted into golden hours, and anticipation lingered in every conversation. Tuscany—specifically Castel de Pasquinelli—became the soul of their wedding. Terracotta walls glowed beneath the afternoon sun, cypress trees swayed in the breeze, and olive groves whispered centuries of stories. “After just one conversation with the owners, Tobias and I knew instantly this was the place,” Lauren says. Every moment brimmed with joy. The welcome dinner transformed into a lively Italian pizza party—wood-fired ovens radiating warmth, live folk music dancing into the night, lanterns casting molten gold on linen-draped tables.

On the wedding day, Lauren’s ivory off-shoulder gown shimmered in the Tuscan light. In a perfectly imperfect moment, her veil slipped off on the cobblestones as she walked toward her father. “Even though some things didn’t go exactly as planned, it was perfect. Tobias is such a genuine, grounded human being, and I knew he was someone I wanted in my life forever.” Then the night sky bloomed. Timed to Coldplay’s A Sky Full of Stars, four minutes of fireworks lit up the hills. “We didn’t tell anyone because we wanted it to be a huge surprise,” she smiles.

Lauren and Tobias’s love lives in the details—in the brush of a hand, in laughter that arrives without warning, in the comfort of being wholly yourself with someone. “Every moment felt like home with Tobias… and I still feel that today,” she says.

The Groom’s Take

“When I look back at our long-distance phase, the memory that still makes me smile is when we met in Mykonos, Greece. We hadn’t seen each other for a while, and the anticipation was unreal. But the moment we reunited, everything felt right again—like no time had passed. Distance really does make the heart grow fonder. It’s strange to think that the day I met Lauren, I just knew she was the one.

The proposal in Aruba was definitely nerve-wracking. Even though I knew Lauren would say yes, I was still anxious. It’s such a big moment, and you want everything to go perfectly. I asked Lauren to dress up because we were going out, and, of course, she knew what was coming. Another special moment was when I saw her in the wedding dress for the first time…I’ll never forget it. She looked like an angel. I was nervous before the ceremony, but once we were together, I felt calm. It was one of those moments when everything faded in the background, and she was all I could focus on.

There were some funny, unplanned moments, too. Like when her veil came off—it made everyone laugh, and reminded us how being perfectly imperfect makes everything more memorable. What stood out most about the wedding was seeing all of our loved ones from different parts of the world come together to celebrate us. It was surreal and so special.