It’s Time To Celebrate!

How We Met: Alex & I actually met when we were both younger. I was working in the office for my mom's HVAC company at the time when Alex was remodeling his home and came in to purchase a few items. We both dont recall this encounter or the many times we realized we were both at the same place or event. Fast forward years later, it's 2016 and I receive a friend request notification on Instagram. Alex had seen me in a group photo with a few mutual friends. I quickly accepted thinking we must know each other, only to begin to scroll through Alex's pictures and realize...I have no idea who this guy is! But we had a few mutual friends in common, he was quite cute, and so I let it be. As time went on, Alex & I began talking more and more over Instagram, but yet, I was still waiting for him to ask me out. A year later, yes you read that correctly, Alex texted me one Sunday afternoon in September asking if I was free for a glass of wine. I thought to myself, "Well well well, it's about darn time...but do I go? I mean he did take an entire year to finally ask me out!" After some encouragement from my best friend Karina, I decided to just go and meet Alex for a glass a wine. Karina being ready at a moments notice, just in case she needed to bail me out. Hey, don't judge! It's 2017, dating was rough and I had just about given up on finding my Prince Charming at this point. I highly doubted one glass of wine would change my entire world.

I remember getting out of my car and instantly getting nervous as soon as our eyes met. As we walked up to winery together, it was like we had known each other for years. It felt so natural to hang out together, like we were best friends who hung out all the time and this occasion was no different. As we enjoyed our glass of wine, we started to share more about our families. This led to me mentioning where I worked at the time...my mom's company. "I work at a local HVAC company that my mom owns. You probably haven't heard of it, W.A. Call". Alex looked at me like he just solved the greatest puzzle of all time. "Yeah... I know W.A. Call. I have all your ducting in my house. Wait, who are you related to?" Alex & I quickly put the puzzle pieces together, realized we had met years ago and our families already knew each other! Little did we know, faith brought us together again, and this time over a "quick" glass of wine. After a couple glasses of wine, Alex asked if I wanted to grab a quick cup of coffee together. I said yes, and we continued our date to the local coffee spot. After an hour or so at the coffee shop, we both knew our coffee's were finished, but our conversation was no near close to being done. Alex turns to me and says, "I know it's getting late, but how does dinner sound? I know a great Italian spot in Downtown Willow Glen!" This was music to me ears! Italian food is my favorite and so off to dinner we went! Little did we know, a quick glass of wine turned into spending an entire day together...and just the beginning to our incredible love story. Still hanging in there with me? If you need a break to go refill your popcorn or glass of wine, now is the time! Trust me, this story is just getting started...

It's the day before Thanksgiving and of course the rush to get things done before the holiday is the only thing on my mind. Alex was helping me run errands in the morning before he had to head over to his parents' house to help set up for Thanksgiving and I had plans with my best friend Sophia to go wine tasting at my great great grandfathers old winery, now known as Savannah Chanelle, in the afternoon. After getting all our errands done and out of the way, Sophia and I headed to Savannah Chanelle for a little wine tasting and relaxing. The wine room was relatively empty and I was excited to be able to share the history of the winery with her! After wine tasting, our always wonderful host, Mikee Reed, mentioned I should take Sophia down to the creek area and show her around the property. If you haven't been to Savannah Chanelle before, the property is stunning and there is a story almost everywhere you look. Walking out of the wine tasting room, and down to the creek path, the winery was practically empty. I thought, "This is perfect! We can go explore the property now!" As Sophia and I reach the walk way down to the creek, I had just finished my sentence telling her, "Now I am going to take you down to the creek first and this is where my dad proposed to my mom!." As soon as I finish the sentence, I turn to look straight down the path to see a man walking towards us. Now the parking lot was empty, so I was wondering who this person is and where they came from. "Hello Ladies!" is what we hear this person call out, but I couldn't quite make out who they were. I turn to Sophia and say, "Uh do you know who that is?" But when I turned to Sophia, she was no longer by my side but walking back up the trail with tears in her eyes and whispers, "love you!" That's when it all clicked....I turned around to see Alex in front of me, as he grabs my hand and leads me down towards the creek area.

Someone once told me when you are being proposed to, you kinda black out. It's a moment of excitement, shock (which I was definitely in) and a mixture of emotions all at once. Alex leads to me to the edge of the flowing creek, gets down on one knee, and asks me to be his wife. As I was about to say yes, he opens the ring box and I immediately went into shock again after seeing he had a beautiful engagement ring made for me. "Yes, a million times, yes! After placing the ring on my finger, I heard a clicking noise coming from behind the redwoods. Out jumps one of my best gal pals, Quianna, from behind the redwood trees, who captured everything. You will meet Quianna at the wedding, as she is our wedding photographer! After the beautiful proposal and a mini engagement photo shoot with Quianna, we walked back up to the tasting room to meet Sophia and enjoy a few more glasses of wine. Alex opened the barn doors of the tasting room, showing his third surprise of the proposal, a bunch of our family & friends waiting & ready to celebrate our engagement with us! I've always dreamed of how getting proposed to would be, but Alex knocked this proposal out of the park! It was everything I dreamed of and more. Thank you to all our family & friends who made this proposal happen and made sure everything went flawlessly! It was truly a proposal for the history books, a story I can't wait to share with our kids and grandkids one day!

August 2020 would bring a terrible lighting storm, in which, lit most of California on fire. My brother's ranch would be in the direct line of the fires that were setting Livermore county ablaze. A phone call came from my dad and brother, letting Alex & I know they were heading to the ranch to try and fight the fires back and save the ranch. Without hesitation, Alex loaded up some gear, his dirt bike, and headed to the ranch to lend them a hand. Three days go by without much communication as the fires had taken out most of the power. I arrive to my mom's house to be told, "Don't panic, but Alex got into an accident at the ranch. He's on his way to the hospital now and will call you when he gets into cell service". My phone rings and it's Alex letting me know he was on the top of ridge of the property to scout the fires, and see's the fire had jumped their fire break and was coming straight for the ranch. As Alex is racing down the ridge and back up to the house to warn my dad and brother the fire is coming, a Cal Fire Truck is coming up my brothers drive way. Alex unfortunately see's the CalFire truck too late and crashes. Even though Alex was able to get back on his feet immediately after the crash, his injures sent him to the ER where they were able to stitch him back up and do a CT scan. The next day, Alex & I drove back up to the ranch to restock my dad & brother on supplies. While the fire still raged on throughout the hills, Alex & I continued on the backroad until we reached the ranch. While I sat in the front seat, praying we get through this scary drive, Alex goes, "Hey hun. So when they did the CT scan, they didn't find a brain bleed, but they did find something else. I have to go to Stanford to see a specialist and have them look at my CT scan." I looked at him and said, "Of course you would tell me this while we're driving with a wild fire on both sides of the road! Let me make you an appointment at Stanford & see what they say"

A couple weeks after the accident, Alex & I head to Stanford for his appointment with the neurologist. Due to the pandemic, I was not allowed to go in with Alex. About 30 mins into Alex's appointment, I receive a text message from Alex saying, "Honey, our lives are about to change..." My heart sank. Alex being someone who is always calm and never really worries, I knew something had to be wrong in order for him to say something like that. I picked up Alex from his appointment and he begins to explain to me that the spot on the CT scan they found in the ER, is actually a 8mm tumor sitting on the third ventricle of the brain, blocking the cerebral fluid from freely flowing through out his brain. The neurologist scheduled Alex for emergency surgery to have the tumor removed 3 days later... So what do you say in a moment like this? When you find out the love of your life, your fiancée, has to have emergency brain surgery and you are still in shock from the fires and his initial accident, I looked at him and without hesitation I said, "Do you want to get married...before your surgery?" Alex looked at me in shock. "Are you sure? Is that something you want to do? What about the wedding?" The wedding was the last thing on my mind. The only thing I cared about in that moment was marrying my best friend. Everything else, we will take care of one step at a time. Right now, I have about 24 hours to plan a wedding...

After telling our immediate family and very small group of friends the news of Alex's diagnosis and surgery, we also shared we would like to be married before Alex goes in for his surgery. The amount of love & support we received was overwhelming! Alex's parents offered to host the ceremony in their gorgeous backyard. My mom & I raced out to find a last minute wedding dress, and she kept me calm during the entire planning process. Our amazing friend Mick Greco preformed the ceremony for us. Alex's best man, Vince, and my maids of honor, Alyssa & Karina, were there for us every step of the way, down to every little detail to get us prepared and ready to walk down the isle. It took a village, but thanks to my amazing DTSJ community, I was able to obtain a marriage license from the county within a few hours! A huge thank you to Paula Vargas for making beautiful flower arrangements for us! Our talented and amazing friend (and one of my bridesmaids) Ellen, captured all the beautiful moments at our wedding photographer. Our wonderful friends, Sophia, Ben & Amanda who helped with wedding planning details! To La Villa who took care of catering all of our favorites for us! And of course, last but not least, our puppy of honor, Georgia, who walked down (well more like ran & wanted to play chase) our wedding rings to us. It was a beautiful ceremony which we wish we could have shared with all of you! But don't worry, the big celebration is still coming up...

The next morning after the wedding, Alex & I headed to Stanford and checked him in for his surgery. 8 hours later, I received a phone call from his surgeon saying the surgery went great and I could come and see him! After helping me sneak in after visitor hours, I was able to see Alex. We spent the time together just holding each others hands and for the first time, really letting everything that just happened set in. The fire, crashing the dirt bike, CT Scan, brain tumor, emergency surgery, wedding, etc. We were constantly on the go & figuring everything out, that we didn't really have time to stop and absorb it all. When life hits you as hard and fast as it did with us, there was nothing that I was more grateful for in that moment than holding the hand of my now husband, knowing that no matter what life throws at us, we will get through it together and come back stronger than ever. With a full recovery and Alex back to full duty at his fire station, we are excited to share our special day with you all! Alex and I have decided to keep our original wedding date we had set, have our marriage blessed by the church and enjoy a huge party at Nestldown with all the people we love and treasure so very much! We have a lot to celebrate and having you all there will make our day that much more special! We look forward to seeing all your beautiful faces soon! Xoxo, Alexander & Ashley Bruni