From Alissa:
One evening after a lovely afternoon with Monica, my very best friend, we decided to go dancing. We went to La Rumba, the local salsa club. Soon after arriving, Monica got swooped up by one of her admirers, aching to dance with her, a bachata song came on (my favorite) and a cute Latin man asked me to dance. From the very first moment we had instant chemistry, and didn't stop dancing together all night. With his limited English, and my limited Spanish, we attempted to have some conversation. From what I could gather, I learned that he was from El Salvador and had the best smile I had ever seen. We exchanged contact information, and I was smitten.
We began talking over texting, and soon after he invited me to go to bachata night at another Latin club and we danced the night away . The next night he brought pupusas over for dinner, and we talked the night away. I knew I liked him, and just wished we could communicate better.
Then it all came crumbling down. Gio dumped me to the curb. He said that he was looking for something really serious, and with the language barrier, he was worried that we were limited in how deep our relationship could go. My friend Amanda came over with dark chocolate salted caramels, and listened to me cry. I was irrationally devastated, knowing I had met someone really special, but fully understanding and respecting his choice.
A few weeks later, as I was standing on a rooftop in New York City when I got a message from Gio. From that moment on, we didn't go a day without messaging. When I got back from my trip, Gio asked me to go dancing again, and from the moment we saw each other, it clicked. We have spent every single day together since. He helped me move into my new home, painted and fixed up everything, and has been the most incredible partner in the process of buying and moving into our home.
He has been embraced into our family, and my parents, brother, and friends could not love him any more.
At one point, as we were talking on the couch, we talked about getting married and then just kinda jumped in to the idea! We found a place we wanted to get married, and on October 21, we scheduled a meeting with the owner of the venue. We fell in love with it because of the dock right on the lake-- which is absolutely stunning. So after we decided it was the most beautiful place for our September wedding, we decided to walk back to the dock and gaze out at the gorgeous view. As we stood on the dock, he said the sweetest words, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.
On November 17, 2018, Gio and I got married at our dining table with our closest family members. Since then we have been living the most incredible life together and are looking forward to all of our friends and family to meet at our commitment ceremony in Grand Lake, Colorado on September 13, 2019.

I am so happy, and I am drenched in blissful gratitude.
Gio is by far the most amazing man I have ever met. He has quickly become my very favorite person. He is gentle, kind, generous, thoughtful. He is so sexy, smart, and witty; he is kind in his humor, he would never playfully tease or joke at the expense of another person. Gio is strong and hard working; he doesn't ever sit down if there is something he can do for someone else. He is tender and warm, and is not afraid to cry when something really touches him. I've never known anyone to love harder and serve so generously. He loves his family with everything he is, and loves me more than I ever thought I could deserve.