Bienvenidos a Mexico!

Johel had just arrived in Fort Collins, Colorado and was looking for people to play volleyball with. He stumbled upon Gloria's group playing grass volleyball at the park one summer evening. Gloria was playing on the beginner court but Johel jumped right onto the advanced "competitive" court so they didn't get to play volleyball with one another that night. Later that evening, one of Gloria's friends tried to introduce them because Johel mentioned he had moved to Colorado from Southern California, just like Gloria did. By that time, the sun had set and it was really dark so Gloria couldn't make out the details of his face clearly. The next time they bumped into each other again at the next volleyball meet up, Gloria didn't remember having met him before but fortunately, Johel remembered Gloria and was persistent about seeing her at volleyball every week.

Although they became good friends since first meeting, they didn't date until two years later. Johel made his move on Valentine's day by wooing her with some delicious homemade stuffed bell peppers and taking her on a romantic ski trip to Vail. The rest is history. Since then, they've moved in together, adopted an adorable orange tabby cat named Nemo, completed some extreme home makeovers, and came up with lots of nonsensical inside jokes together. And, of course, played lots of volleyball.

Johel had originally planned to propose to Gloria in the summer of 2021 in Poland but COVID had other plans and they weren't able to leave the country. His next opportunity was to propose while visiting Gloria's family for the holidays in Southern California. Johel had asked his friend, Gerry, to help him get the custom ring from Poland delivered to the U.S. for the proposal. In a lovely little Italian restaurant in San Diego, Johel coordinated with the servers to bring out champagne and tiramisu for dessert. Johel was acting weird all weekend so Gloria had suspected that he might propose, but she didn't think he'd actually do it because why would he ask her to put in the reservations for dinner? Well, he surprised her when dessert came out and he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. She said yes. Now we can't wait to celebrate with you all in Mexico!