The moment we met from Gino’s eyes:

They say you meet the one when you least expect it, and that's exactly how I found Lauren. At Coachella 2017, we were introduced through mutual friends. I thought she was really cute. But I convinced myself someone like her wouldn't be interested in me. Turned out that fate had other plans...

The moment we met from Lauren’s eyes:

It was eight years ago–April 2017, weekend 2 of the Coachella Music Festival; It was a last-minute decision for me to tag along with Stacey’s group of friends to the festival. I was really excited because I had no idea what to expect as a first-timer to Coachella, and I was going with an experienced group of Coachella-goers.

It was a warm day in Indio and we decided to beat the heat and grab drinks and tacos. As we were waiting in the parking lot for others to join us, a brand new, shiny Audi pulled up into the parking spot right next to where we were posted up.

My first thought was “Ooo okay! Nice car…”

My second thought was “Wait, I know the people in the car–they’re with us!?”

The third thought was “Wait wait, who’s the driver??”

It was Gino. We’d never met before.

I probably looked like a fool, because I felt as if I had crazy, heart-eyes as plain as day for the world to see. Maybe it was a buzz or maybe it was butterflies, but the world slowed down in a balmy haze as he greeted me with a big smile and introduced himself. I was absolutely and completely drawn to him from that point forward. And the rest they say, is history…

It would be weeks later that they would reconnect at a mutual friend’s birthday party, and from there, their relationship slowly started to blossom.

Gino had made the move from Bakersfield to Los Angeles years prior to continue his work with AT&T, and Lauren had been studying to obtain a paralegal certification at UCI while working full-time as a legal assistant and floor manager at a restaurant in Orange County. They made every effort to connect on the weekends in Los Angeles—catching movie premieres at dine-in theatres, concerts at the Staples Center, sunbathing on the soft sands of Hermosa Beach, hiking at Griffith Park, and catching Dodgers, Lakers, and Rams games were just some of the things they loved to do together.

Then as luck and fate would have it, Lauren landed a job as a litigation paralegal at a law firm in Los Angeles—bringing her closer to Gino.

Over the years, they grew ever closer—bonding over delicious meals and foodie adventures that took them all over the world. They traveled to the islands of Greece, Hawaii, and Mexico just to name a few. As they travelled farther from home, it brought them closer together.

Fast forward through grinding in Los Angeles and living through the beginning of a pandemic—in 2021, they decided to take a leap of faith and finally move in together. They settled in Irvine, California and began building their lives together.

Then on Lauren’s birthday in 2022, they received the most devastating news that no thirty-something year old ever expects to get: She was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer.

The following year would test their relationship to its absolute limits. Even so, their love for each other not just persisted, but reached a depth neither one of them even knew was possible. Small daily wins turned into life-changing milestones when treatment finally concluded in April 2023, and she was deemed cancer-free.

Empowered to get back to the regularly-scheduled program and reinvigorate their souls, Gino and Lauren would take every opportunity to jetset to wherever their hearts desired: New York, Miami, the Philippines, Japan, Spain, France, and the Netherlands.

In November 2024, during a quiet morning stroll through the picturesque streets of Amsterdam, Gino got down to one knee and asked Lauren to be his wife!

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