In January 2020, at the start of their study abroad program in Toledo, Spain, Jessica Lopez Valerio and Jorge Andres Plaza sat alone in their class on Latin American politics for 15 minutes before realizing that it had been canceled.
Ms. Lopez Valerio, a student at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan, P.R., and Mr. Plaza, a student at University of Notre Dame, began talking and soon learned that they had a few other classes together.
“We exchanged phone numbers and that’s how we became friends,” said Mr. Plaza, 23, who now works as a consultant at the tax and advisory firm Deloitte in Miami. “We then fell into the same social group because Jessica had friends in the program whom she knew from school in Puerto Rico and I started hanging out with them. Since I’m Venezuelan, I felt at home with them because they were also Latin-American.”
One late night that February during a pre-Lent celebration in Toledo, the couple strolled through the city’s medieval streets and when they reached Ms. Lopez Valerio’s dorm, they heard church bells. “She joked that they could be wedding bells and I kissed her in response,” Mr. Plaza said.
On their first date the following week, they went out for ice cream. “It was only 40 degrees outside,” said Ms. Lopez Valerio, 23, a social media coordinator at BlackDog Advertising in Miami. “We huddled next to each other on a park bench in the cold as we hurriedly ate our ice cream, then we went back to my dorm for warmth and listened to our favorite songs.”
A week later, the pair declared their feelings for each other. “We were hanging out in her dorm room and I think she wanted to say ‘I really like you,’ but instead said ‘I really love you.’ I was taken aback at first, but then I said, ‘I love you, too,’” Mr. Plaza said.
Three and a half weeks into their new romance, in March 2020, Mr. Plaza received an email from his university announcing that all study abroad programs were to be suspended because of the Covid pandemic. “I suddenly had less than four days to leave Spain, and during that short period Jessica and I were inseparable,” Mr. Plaza said.
A few hours before the flight back to his home in West Palm Beach, Fla., he asked Ms. Lopez Valerio to be his girlfriend. She quickly agreed.
Ms. Lopez Valerio, who is Dominican and living with her family in Puerto Rico, also flew back home. Over the next 18 months, the couple shared nightly FaceTime conversations and Mr. Plaza visited Ms. Lopez Valerio in Puerto Rico six times once travel was allowed again. It was during a visit for New Year’s 2021 that they decided to live together in Miami after graduation.
“Because we had grown so close on a spiritual level during our long-distance relationship, when we moved in together it felt so familiar, like we had dated in person over the last year and a half,” Mr. Plaza said. “We knew and loved everything about each other.”
Mr. Plaza proposed on Jan. 29, 2022. He hired a company to set up a picnic complete with a photographer at Miami’s Bayfront Park overlooking Biscayne Bay. “I convinced Jessica that it would be a casual photo shoot just for fun and since I had to reschedule it a few times because I was afraid it would rain it threw her off the scent of my proposing,” he said. “When we got there, the photographer was already set up and I immediately got down on one knee and told her how I wanted her in my life. She cried so much I started to get concerned, but thankfully she said yes.”
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The couple were married Jan. 28, 2023 at Gesù Church in Miami, with the Rev. James Lambert, a Roman Catholic priest, leading a traditional ceremony in front of 75 family members and friends. “When we were new to Miami, we initially struggled to find friends, but we’ve made our closest friendships at our church,” Ms. Lopez Valerio said.
The couple incorporated several Latino traditions into their ceremony. This included “el lazo,” where a large rosary was placed around their shoulders by their mothers symbolizing their union, and “las arras,” gold coins brought to the altar by the groom’s parents and given to the bride to represent the groom’s commitment to provide for her and their home.
At the reception, held at Renaissance Ballrooms in West Miami, the newlyweds shared their first dance to “Drunk on You” by Oh Wonder. “It was the first song we listened to on our first date in Toledo,” Ms. Lopez Valerio said.
“When we began our study abroad semester in Spain, we both hoped that the experience would bring lifelong memories, friendships, and new beginnings,” Mr. Plaza said. “And that’s exactly what happened.”
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