Diane Angel Photography: It's our Date-A-Versary!!

It was a sunny afternoon the day I met my future husband a little over 12 years ago.

I was a junior in high school at the time and was on my way to my mom's work and a friend of mine
stopped to chat with a couple of other friends. Mind you at this time, our high school was the only
high school in our small town and the student population was a little over 6,000. So there was a definite possibility of meeting someone new nearly every day.

That particular day after school, my friend introduced me to Arnaldo. He was very nice, had a welcoming smile and was wearing a bright Hawaiian style shirt. Those Hawaiian shirts were sort of his trademark style at the time and I could always find him in a crowd because of his shirts.

Oh how Hawaii was with us from the beginning :)

So we were acquaintances from then on because I learned he had a girlfriend at the time and I was far more consumed with school and moving forward to worry about dating.

Overtime, I would run into Arnaldo every now and then at school and he was always the nicest guy, a little too charming for me, but always a really great guy. And I remember thinking to myself "If I could date any guy, I would want to date Arnaldo or someone like him."

Time passed and we got to know each other slowly and the last day of my senior year, right before I was about to leave school Arnaldo found me in the crowd and we chatted, he congratulated me on graduating (since he was a year behind me) and we took a picture together, one I always treasure and love to look back on to see how much we've changed. After that picture I didn't think I would see him again.

About a year passed and I was in my first year of college and I ran into him at the local Blockbuster because he was working there and we got to talking again and exchanged phone numbers, it was the holiday season so we didn't get around to calling each other, haha! Around the end of January we made plans, he actually asked me on a lunch date and we went out for sandwiches,it was one of the best dates I've ever been on! We had many laughs, fun conversation and just a really great time.

From then on we kept in touch and would talk for hours on end every night and decided to make it official on February 20, 2003 and become "boyfriend and girlfriend". I remember that Arnaldo was the coolest guy I've ever known, treated me great, made me laugh and always made me feel awesome as a person.

And it's been that way ever since. I absolutely adore this guy, love him with every ounce of my soul and cherish every moment with him. We dated for 6.5 years and were married almost 4 years ago in the gorgeous city of Carmel-By-The-Sea.

Today we are celebrating our 10 year "date-a-versary". It truly is a huge special time for us, time has seemed to fly by and we have enjoyed every single day together. He is my best friend, my cheerleader, my comic relief, my peace and comfort and my better half, truly,he makes me a better person and makes me want to be an even better version of myself every day of my life. It's because of Arnaldo and the incredible love and support he gives me that makes me want to reach for the stars and beyond. I'm so proud to be his wife and so proud of all the things he has accomplished in life, he truly inspires me.

And we truly have just begun in this awesome journey of life!

I can't believe I have the best guy in the world by my side, my husband and I can't wait to celebrate the next 10, 20, 30 years and beyond together. We've done so much together, been on many adventures, grown up together and are building a life together, it is so much cooler than I could've ever imagined. God has had his hands on our lives and our relationship and it's because of Him that
we have the incredible love and respect for each other.

I had to commemorate our anniversary with pictures of us over the years, starting with a picture when we first started dating. We have sooooo many pictures that it was hard to choose which ones to share, but I was able to narrow it down somewhat, haha! It made us laugh going through our pictures, to see how we've grown and changed and molded into adults and into a couple together. I also have a few pictures from our wedding to share our journey.

Cheers!!