The happy couple take their pre-wedding photos in Switzerland. Photo by Zhao Lin for Shanghai Star

Gu Xingdi and Li Jun couldn't have been more different when they were primary school classmates.

Gu was the class monitor and a model student, while Li was the naughty boy. At that time, the most frequent thing Gu said to Li was "hand in your homework quickly or else I’ll report you to the teacher".

"You are so scary, who would be willing to marry you in the future?" Li would shoot back. Neither of them expected that nearly a decade later they would fall in love, endure a long-distance relationship and finally, tie the knot.

Their family homes in Changzhou, Jiangsu province are only a 10-minute walk apart, but after primary school the pair did not see each other again until a school reunion in July 2009, eight years after they graduated. They couldn't help but marvel at the changes in each other.

"Her boyish short hair had grown long, to her shoulders, and she looked so gentle and quiet," Li says. Gu, then a student in Nanjing University, thought he was "simple and bright".

Li plucked up all his courage to ask for a date, and she happily agreed.