Amanda had taken a job at a special education school. Right before she started, her mother told her that she thought she would meet someone there. Marcelo had been at the school for several years; he noticed Amanda around the building and on the last day of the school year, he mustered up the courage to ask her out. At first, she was hesitant because she didn’t really know him but she figured she would give him a chance.

As told by the bride... We had just returned from our anniversary dinner. I went upstairs to get his gift and he opened it. He said “I don’t have anything for you yet, but will you try out this game I’ve been working on?”. I said “sure”, he uses an online coding website to build projects for work. He had recreated the Legend of Zelda and said “there’s only one room that works right now” and I proceeded to go through all the wrong places, broke something, and got stuck somewhere! Eventually, I went to the right room where it said “it’s a secret to everybody” (it wasn’t) and displayed a ring. When I touched the ring, it started playing our song and he proposed in his own very nerdy way :P

Our original date meant too much to give up, so yes...we got married in a pandemic anyway. Special thanks to those of you who were able to celebrate with us up close, from a distance, and beyond. We hope to see you all up close this time for our first anniversary "happily ever after party"!