There’s nothing like a dancefloor to heal the wounds of a breakup. Especially when on said dancefloor you meet your forever guy. Such was the case for Glynn and Tony.

“My friends and I agreed that we would ignore any boy who gave us attention that night. That plan worked out pretty well until Tony came up and introduced himself.” “I saw a shirtless young guy I had never seen before. Even in the dark, I noticed his piercing blue-green eyes. After approaching him a few times, he finally said agreed to dance. I like to think it’s because I was persuasive and not because he was getting more drunk as the night went on!” Glynn thought this would be ‘one night only,’ until Tony asked him out to dinner.

“My work wife convinced me to say yes, despite my looking forward to a few months being single and reckless,” Glynn said. Thinking he’d score a free dinner, Glynn found himself “hooked as soon as we put in our orders!” Tony had selected a sushi restaurant so that, if conversation waned, he could talk about his year living in Japan. “I didn’t have to use the default, but I did eventually tell him about all my travels,” Tony said. More importantly, Tony appreciated how easy Glynn was to talk to, how smart he was, and didn’t feel the need to impress him. It wasn’t too love before the two fell in love.

Glynn shared that, “a few weeks after we started seeing each other, his kickball team was playing mine in a tournament game, and it happened to be my birthday. After my team won, he brought me a surprise custom-made cupcake set and everybody sang me happy birthday in the middle of the field. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before, and it played straight to my heart-strings.” Tony went on, “first off, I believe my team won that tournament. Second, I knew we were destined for each other when he met my family and they immediately fell in love with him. He told the dumbest jokes, but they kept on laughing - that’s how I knew it was going to work.”

Two years later in 2019, the two headed to Banff, Canada for a friend’s wedding... and to their engagement! “His friend picked us up from the airport and took us to Fairmont Banff Springs to ‘show us the beautiful scenery’. Tony asked me if we could take a picture in this really amazing spot, and as soon as we got positioned, he dropped down onto one knee (with a Tiffany’s rose-gold band in hand). The first thing out of my mouth was ‘yes!’ and the second thing was ‘don’t you dare tell anybody you proposed to me at your friend’s wedding.’” As it turned out, Tony’s friend actively encouraged to propose to Glynn and was all in on it. “When I got down on one knee I had so much to say but I was so nervous that I got tongue tied and all I could do was literally say “Will you marry me?’”

Tony had been planning the wedding since first saying “I love you” to Glynn. “My culture is all about family, love, and good parties, so I definitely had thought about all of it,” Tony explained. And as a result, he took the lead on everything to do with the wedding. “Other than objecting to green suspenders and green socks with black suits, I pretty must let him have free reign,” Glynn said.

Given the two wanted to have a big wedding, Mexico was the logical choice. As Glynn said: “We had our wedding in Nayarit, Mexico, for three main reasons: 1. Everything is cheaper in Mexico. We knew we wanted a classy affair, with guestlist of about 200, and a dollar goes a lot further in Mexico than it does in Chicago. 2. Tony is Mexican and has lots of family members near Puerto Vallarta. And 3. With COVID’s shelter-in-place rules in effect for so long, people were eager to go on a trip.”

And as fun as said trip was, Glynn and Tony’s wedding day carried a lot of meaning. The wedding was co-officiated by Glynn’s best friend Max (who officiated in English) and Africa, Tony’s aunt (who officiated in Spanish). Tony pointed out: “I was the first one in my very, very large family to come out, and it was very difficult for me for so long. On my wedding day, standing in front of 200+ people who were so loving and supportive of me, all I could think about was how grateful and lucky I am to have such an amazing family. I felt so fortunate to have been an example for other family members who have since come out.”

Glynn spoke to their vows, saying: “We wrote our own and they could best be summarized as this: realistic. We both know that marriage is a lot of hard work, and neither of us see it through rose-colored glasses. We didn’t promise to make our lives together as seamless as possible- rather, we promised to hear each other truly and serve each other dutifully. We also told folks they we will always need to rely on friend and family for advice and guidance. To me, that’s the most important part of a successful relationship - understanding where the weaknesses lie, and working together to guard against them. The ceremony was truly one of those ‘everybody-laughed-everybody-cried events.’”

But everybody got down, too.

The reception included a 10-piece mariachi band performing under a large tent as guests sat at marble tables arranged with thousands of flowers. Dinner was 4-courses followed by an elote stand at 10pm and chilaquiles at midnight. People were well-fed and they used that energy to dance to sets of American classics and Mexican hits from 9:00 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. Tony exclaimed: “Nobody could stay in their seats – even the grandparents! Even though people had been outside in extreme heat all day, that wasn’t enough to stop them from dancing until the venue shut down.”

Mexican food and music weren’t the only way the two integrated Mexico to their day. Tony explained that “Mexican weddings replace bouquet throwing with belt-whipping while holding a baby, which symbolizes that a person’s next steps are being berated by their spouse and raising kids! This is a spot-on assessment. We also stood on chairs pouring tequila into 150+ mouths as our guests grabbed hands and formed a running snake below us. Our last tradition was being thrown up into the air, winning-coach-of-the-Super-Bowl style. I’m surprised I didn’t break anything.”

Setting the revelry aside, Glynn also explained that: “The biggest emotion I felt was surprise: surprise at how everything went off without an issue, surprise at how I’m able to remember every little bit of it (I’ve had enough people tell me they forgot everything about their wedding day because they were too busy to capture the moments), and surprise that my heart could take in so much love without bursting. I’m already planning our 10-year anniversary!!”

Planning their wedding was a feat made easier by working with a planner. Theirs, Lorenza Solbes—who plans weddings both in Mexico and the US—was integral to making Glynn’s and Tony’s wedding exactly as they’d envisioned. As Glynn said: “Get one. Don’t think twice about it.” The two further shared another practical bit of advice: take pictures before the ceremony so you can have as much time with your guests as possible and be a guest at your own wedding.

Asked how they think their friends and family describe them now that they’re married, Glynn answered: “They would describe us the same way now as they did when we were dating - funny, spicy, and oh-so-different!! Tony loves sports and meeting new people. I love hiding under a weighted blanket and reading a classic novel. Tony goes to sleep at 1am and I’m usually asleep by 9pm. They say that opposites attract, and then they drive each other insane - that’s probably true, but we’ve figured out how to make it work. It keeps the relationship interesting, and we’re never, ever bored.”

Credits:

Ceremony & Reception Venue: Tizate Sea Garden

Photographer & Videographer: Black and White Wedding Studio, @blackandwhite.mx

Planner/Designer: Lorenza Solbes

Caterer: Alcachofa Catering, @alcachofacatering

Apparel/Accessories: Indochino