Our Story
CECILIA'S STORY
I love telling the story of how Tony and I met! It was a rainy Wednesday night (as all good romantic stories start) when a friend and I headed down to the Smaug (Winona State's food court/common area) to work on Music Theory homework. We both sat on one side of the booth to get started on our homework. Only a few minutes into working I got a phone call, and had to step away to answer. It was my ex-boyfriend...(not quite the romantic story you were probably thinking of) Now, we had only really dated for a month, nothing too serious, but this phone call was unexpected, and did not end very.. how do I put this.. gracefully.
I had decided something the day before, when the initial breakup happened, and this phone call just solidified that decision, that I was DONE looking for guys. I sat and prayed to God saying "If you have someone for me, go ahead and put him in my life, but until than this is in your hands now! Take my heart, and hold onto it because I OBVIOUSLY have no clue what to do with it." After that phone call I thought I was done with guys until after college, but little did I know that God had a plan for me.
After I triumphantly hung up the phone, I walked back to the Smaug to work on homework with my friend feeling like a new person. As I rounded the corner to get back to the booth that we were sitting at, I noticed someone sitting across the table who was not there before. I had to take a double take to make sure this was the right booth, and sure enough my stuff was still on the table. As I went to sit down, before my butt even touched the seat, this cute stranger stood up, extended his arm across the table, and said, "Hello, I am Tony!" with the cutest smile on his face. This shocked me! College kids don't normally introduce themselves this way, they hide behind their computers with their headphones in, and ignore you. This small little greeting brought the dorkiest smile to my face, but I thought nothing of it, and got to work on homework. As we were doing homework, my friend made a joke about the fact that I had to wear polos everyday to school, but caught himself, and said that he probably shouldn't joke about Catholic Schools with Tony sitting there. This immediately sparked my interest, I asked why, and my friend said, "Because he's Catholic." My gaze went instantly to his, and all I could say was, "Me too!" My friend then became a distant memory after that. We talked non stop the rest of the night!
We went on our first date on another rainy Wednesday evening on April 20th. He took me to Lakeview Drive Inn, (Winona's oldest Restaurant) and it was just as awkward as any first date is, but I wouldn't have had it any other way :)
I know our story has quite the quirky beginning, but I love it, and it just shows how good God is, and that he had quite the story waiting for me.
I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with Tony <3
ANTHONY'S STORY
I should preface this story with the fact that the previous semester I had decided I would stop dating until after college.
Our story started on a seemingly normal day. A friend of mine asked if I would like to study in the Smaug, the food court on campus at Winona State University. I agreed and headed on down. When I got there, I saw there was another computer next to him that I didn't recognize. I asked him about it. He offhandedly said the name of the woman I would marry. I sat and soon this beautiful woman with a beaming smile walked into view. I felt my heart skip a beat and thought, "looks like I'm dating again. It would be a mistake to miss this one." Then, after a couple minutes I found out she was Catholic! We spent the next month or so pretending we didn't want to date each other. It was of course obvious to everyone other than us. We would hang out way too late at night with a group of friends, who we would often leave to walk and talk away from them. We told each other all about our lives. Constantly trying to build each others self esteem. Creating more inside jokes than we could possibly remember. It was great fun.
And lucky for me the fun doesn't end there. I asked Cecilia to marry me on July 2, 2017 and oddly enough, she said yes. A short fifteen months later, we will be forever wed!
