We would like to thank Tinder (Yes, Tinder!) for bringing us together - what an incredible story!

It was September 17, 2016. I was at my friend's house attending a birthday lunch and making Moscow Mules for everybody when I suddenly decided to get on the Tinder app and check my messages. There I had a message fom Gilberto to which I responded right away, and we started chatting, mainly about MOSCOW MULES. We had a fun conversation that went on for a long time...

That was it for some time. The next day I didn't hear anything from him, neither did I the day after. And since girls aren't supposed to message first (at least not in the beginning LOL) I moved on with my life...

Two weeks or so later I received a text asking where I had disappeared. Apparently I had disappeared when I thought he did! Anyway, we exchanged a few texts, again about MOSCOW MULES, and we continued at this pace, busy with our lives, reaching out to each other every couple of weeks. All of our communications were through the Tinder app - we didn't even exchange our phone numbers!

It was sometime in October 2016 when I decided to deactivate my Tinder app (too bad I did it - it would have been fun to go back today and read our early conversations!). Anyway, before I deactivated it I remembered there was this guy named Gilberto whom I had been talking to from time to time. He seemed fun so I decided to send him a last Tinder message leaving my phone number in case he wanted to reach out to me in the future. Who would have known I was sending that message to my future husband?! I am so glad I did!

So I deleted Tinder, and about two weeks passed before I received a long message from an unknown number apparently from a jungle in Mexico. Oh yes, that was Gilberto! The message included a picture of the pyramids, and he was also talking about unstable network connection (possible explanation for not messaging sooner?) and I am sure he must have mentioned he couldn't wait to taste my MOSCOW MULES.

Finally sometime in November Gilberto suggested that we seriously think about scheduling our first date, otherwise at that pace we would never meet (at least not that year). I agreed and we scheduled our date for December 12 (a Monday night - I think he did it on purpose), and then we went back to our once in two weeks communication schedule.

It was December 12 around 6pm when I received a text from Gilberto asking if I was excited for the night, and telling me that his mom was excited too and would like to join us. I had to think for a moment - it is a joke, right? I was 99% sure it was a joke, but the 1% part of me thought of cancelling the date right there. I was on the phone with my friend Monica at that time and I told her about the text I received and she said, "It is scary". About one minute later I got a text saying it was a joke. What a relief! We finally started laughing! What a hilarious icebreaker! Monica even said she already liked Gilberto a lot and was so excited about my date with him! We then decided to bring our families to the second date instead (LOL).

Our first date went really well. We stayed up talking, eating and drinking until 3am (on a Monday!). Since our date was right before the Christmas and New Years holidays, we didn't get to have our second date until after the New Year. Thus, we had our second date on January 2, and then the 3rd date 3 days later, and after that we saw each other almost every day. On February 14, 2017 we officially became boyfriend and girlfriend (I like to say it was on Feb 15 because he asked me at 1am, but we still kept Feb 14 as the official date), and on October 12, 2018 we got engaged at the Venetian hotel in Vegas.

I am very excited about our life together!