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Cynthia DelgadilloMarch 2007My fiancé Rene and I are what you might call high school sweethearts. We met in middle school and in our freshman year of high school he finally asked me out. My parents didn’t allow me to date, so we had to settle for talking at school and sending each other “love notes”. We finally had our first official date when we were juniors and even then, we were chaperoned by my little sister, but we didn’t mind, we were just happy to spend time together. After high school we were still together and we both knew our relationship was meant to be! Although our personalities are very different, he is very serious and I tend to be a little more carefree, we really seem to balance each other. We both have the same values, sense of humor and are very devoted to our families. As our relationship progressed we began to talk about the possibility of marriage. It seemed like it was just talk, until one day he asked me what kind of ring I would want. I hadn’t really thought about it, so we immediately started looking. In the midst of our ring hunting, Rene decided to purchase a house and the ring search was put on hold. We began thinking about moving in together, but my parents were very opposed to the idea, so on December 7, 2006, the day before our 9th anniversary together we once again went shopping for a ring, we actually found one we both liked so I really thought he would probably propose the next day, but he didn’t. Much to my surprise he waited until New Years Eve, the day I returned from a trip to Mexico. We had plans to go ice-skating with a group of friends, but it began to rain and we went to the Winter Wonderland Fest at Navy Pier. Our group shrunk to his cousin, his younger brother and us. We stopped in front of the largest Christmas tree to get our photo taken. We were in position for a minute and his brother hadn’t taken the photo yet so I looked over at Rene and he was on one knee with the ring in his hand. I was so surprised I could barely answer him, but I finally said yes. The moment was so much more romantic than I had expected, I was so happy I couldn’t stop crying.  We haven’t set the official date yet, but we are considering next December, which would be our 10th anniversary. We will be married at St. Benedict parish in Blue Island on the south side. Because we both come from very large families we are anticipating 400 to 450 guests so we are still trying to find a reception site near our home that will easily accommodate the crowd. I really hope we honeymoon somewhere warm with a beach, possibly Cancun or Hawaii. We are both so glad we didn’t rush into getting married. We love each other very much and are really enjoying planning our wedding and looking forward to our life together. Winning my dress has been one of the best and most surprising parts of the wedding planning so far! |
