When I wasn’t getting the hours I needed at Olive Garden I looked at places nearby hiring and found Sauce Pizza & Wine. Diego trained me for the kitchen. It was an instant friendship that lasted almost a year before he started spending every day with me in my tiny studio, small futon, no WiFi, just happy to be together. After 2 months of seeing each other everyday he made it official. And every day since has been the best.

Our first trip to Cali, a few months together. Diego’s from Cali, him and his dad hadn’t spoken in years. D took it as a chance to reach out and open that door again. His dad & step mom welcomed us openly. For me, being estranged to my parents over religious differences, it was so heartwarming to have parental figures in my life again. This trip led to a full reunion with all of D’s Cali fam, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents. It didn’t just heal a relationship, it built a family for us.

We're paying for our entire wedding ourselves, no help from family, and our guest list has grown from 70 to 100 over the past year of planning, which means costs keep climbing. We're getting married this October, and winning would help us cover those final costs without stress. But the bigger dream of ours is to buy our first home together at the start of 2027 and begin our family. The money wouldn’t just help us celebrate our wedding but help us build our future too.