A Journey of Love

This section of my blog is dedicated to the journey my husband and I have gone through since day one.

We met at a church retreat in the year 2004. I actually have a pic of this below:

I will be honest when I say that I did not like him at all. He just wasn’t my type. I have always liked the All-American, very white, red haired, freckles-and-all type of guy. If I could have Conan O’ Brian I would! LOL! I thought he talked too much, he thought he knew it all, and was too over confident. My dad did always say that the day I meet a guy who liked to talk more than I did then that would be the guy I marry. Boy was my daddy right!

We officially started dating a few days before my brother’s wedding. It was October 21st, 2005 that he made it official! It was so weird because I thought we were already dating but he said not until he came and asked my parents first. Who does that? Well, he did since he is old fashioned like that. I kind of was embarrassed and nervous. My parents had a few things to tell him and he took it all in and respected their wishes.

Here we are at my brother’s wedding a few days later:

A little under a year he proposed. It was October 8th, 2006. I was so surprised because it was so unexpected and perfectly planned by him. It seemed that everyone knew but me. He gathered his family from Chicago and mine for a BBQ that we bothcooked and put together. Since his whole family lived in Chicago and to my surprise I see them walking to the patio, I was like… Huh? What is your family doing here? Then when I turned around he was down in one knee. I was in shock! He told me how much he loved me and how he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. He told me how sure he was that I was the one from the moment he first laid his eyes on me. I am sure he said a lot more, but to tell you the truth it is still a blur to me since I was so in shock. When I said yes to him, he placed the ring on my finger and asked me if I liked it. I told him no! The reason: I couldn’t see the ring from all the tears I had on my eyes. After a good wipe away I saw the most gorgeous ring!

You better believe that the very next day the planning started. We wanted a traditional Catholic wedding since we are both devout Catholics. We went through the whole process, the meetings, the retreat, all of it.

Here are a few pictures from our engagement session. We had an awesome photographer. her name is Lynette and you can actually visit her website at: http://www.lynettesphotography.com/

My handsome husband, Francisco!

On June 30th, 2006 we received the sacrament of matrimony. It is a day I will never forget.

It started with me getting dressed:

Finally, I was ready to let my family look at me:

My daddy kissed me and this is my favorite picture!

In my family, the tradition is to receive the blessing from your parents and my grandmother too!

My second favorite picture is the next one by the window. I was anxiously waiting for the car to arrive. I kept looking out and I started to freak out a little. Lynette (photograper) captured that moment in a beautiful light.

Finally, when the car arrived, everyone was gone except my daddy and I. I started to get excited! From that moment I was not nervous or worried at all. I just had a huge smile on my face. The car ride there was awesome. Daddy and I were talking and remembering things.

We finally arrived to the church.

We were ready to go in.

My daddy gave me away.      We said our vows.

Our first kiss as husband and wife!

That was our wedding and so our life begins.