Jeannette's brother, Julio, was working with Matt back in 2006. One night, Julio and Matt went out to a club downtown Chicago. Jeannette tagged along and that's where we first met. Fast forward a year to March of 2007. Julio, Matt and some other coworkers had planned a cruise for spring break. Of course, Jeannette just happened to also tag along for the trip. It was a Caribbean Carnival cruise departing from Miami. Everyone had a great time and the cruise was almost over. Once the ship landed at the last stop (Playa Del Carmen, Mexico), everyone got off the ship to tour the city, but Julio and his friend Luis went back to the ship since they felt sick. We stayed back at the beach with one other friend and a group of people we had met on the cruise. We hung out at the bar by the beach for a few hours, but were sure to to be aware of the time since the cruise ship was to depart at 6:00 PM. We checked our watches and took a taxi back to the dock only to see the ship already sailing off to sea slowly in the distance. We checked our watches again and confirmed we were there prior to 6:00 PM. What we didn't realize was that our watches were set to central time and the departure time was 6:00 PM eastern time! We were left stranded in Playa Del Carmen. Although it was quite a traumatic experience, we bonded and became inseparable after that. We did eventually make it back to Chicago and started dating shortly afterwards. Everything after that is history and has led us to our big day!