From a match across 5,000 miles to the little fishing village where we’ll say “I do.”
Chapter one · April 2020
We met on Tinder while Stefano was in Paris and Julissa was 5,000 miles away in Weslaco, Texas. What began as a match on a screen quickly became something neither distance nor borders could contain.
Chapter two · January 2021
Nine months later, we both flew to Tulum to finally meet in person. We spent one unforgettable week together—and somewhere between the beach, the long conversations and the adventure of it all, we fell in love.
Chapter three · September 2021
Julissa came to Paris to spend a year as an au pair. One year became a life: she decided to stay, enrolled in a neuroscience master’s program at La Sorbonne, and Paris became our home together.
Chapter four
We traveled across Europe, but Italy was always the place calling us back. We returned again and again, discovering new cities, coastlines and corners of the country—each trip giving us another reason to love it.
Chapter five
Stefano met Julissa’s mother, Imelda, when she came to spend a month with us in Paris. That first visit became a tradition, and every summer since, Paris has been hers for a whole month too.
Chapter six
Julissa and Imelda visited Sardegna for the first time, discovering Stefano’s mother’s birthplace—and the place she calls her favorite on earth. It became another piece of Italy woven into our shared story.
Chapter seven
Stefano went to Texas for the first time at Christmas and met Julissa’s entire family. From the very beginning, everyone welcomed him with the kind of warmth that made Texas feel a little like home.
Chapter eight
On one of our Italian vacations, we stumbled upon Scopello, a beautiful fishing village in Sicily, and discovered its historic Tonnara. We had no idea then that this would become the place where we would one day get married.
Chapter nine
With our PACS, we became an official French household—united through a French civil union and ready for the next chapter of the life we were building together.
Chapter ten
We bought our first home together in Paris. It was more than an apartment: it was the first place that was entirely ours, filled with plans, memories and the ordinary moments that make a life.
Chapter eleven
During a trip to Mexico, Stefano proposed to Julissa on the beach. It brought us full circle—back to the country where we first met in person, now choosing the rest of our lives together.
Chapter twelve
A memorable Halloween party with all our friends: costumes, laughter and one of those joyful nights that becomes part of the story simply because everyone we love was there.
Chapter thirteen
Julissa graduated from her neuroscience master’s program at La Sorbonne—a proud ending to years of hard work, and another beautiful beginning in the life we chose to build in Paris.
Chapter fourteen
Side by side, with far too many tabs open, we’re planning the celebration that will bring everyone we love to Sicily.