We’re getting married!

In our junior year of high school, we started off as friends coming together to work on a group project for our English class and things flew from there! Bus rides together, writing each other notes in class, participating in school activities together, and hiking in the hills behind school all made us realize we had undeniable feelings for each other. We had officially started dating on April 23rd, 2012. From there it has been a long, winding road to where we are today. We were distanced as soon as high school was over on several occasions: boot camp, attending different universities, hectic school and work schedules, an almost 2-year deployment, and other difficult moments that we had to bear as a couple but we stand strong together to this day.

It all started with Gerardo making plans for a mini getaway for my birthday in October of 2021. Little did I know this was a perfect setup for something I was not truly expecting, especially with the stresses of work! On my birthday, we went dolphin watching, vegan ramen noodles for lunch, and planned to go out to downtown San Diego for some dancing. Later that evening, we were getting ready and Gerardo was patiently rushing me to head out to the patio area of our Airbnb to do my cake and gifts before we left for the night. It was a cool breeze, warm-colored sunset near our back patio that was only a few steps from the beach. It was only the two of us intimately celebrating my birthday with a small cake and cute candles that kept being blown out by the seabreeze. But we succeeded! I expected the whole trip itself to be my gift until he pulled out one last gift: a mini scrapbook filled with pictures of our life and a personalized poem written in it, of which he hasn’t done in years. He reads it outloud to me and it was the final line where he popped the question - “Will you marry me?”, got on one knee and pulled out the ring. Of course, I excitedly and in tears said yes 🖤