One day in May 2021, out of the blue, Gianluca Bianchezi sent Cynthia Hinojosa a direct message over Instagram asking her what she was doing — that day. It had been three years since they met through mutual friends in April 2018 at the Tecate Pa’l Norte music festival in Monterrey, Mexico, where both live. “I thought she was beautiful and very cool,” Mr. Bianchezi said. “We started following each other on Instagram and I occasionally commented on her stories over the years, but we never spoke or texted.”
When Ms. Hinojosa saw Mr. Bianchezi’s message asking her out, she decided to respond. “I had nothing to lose,” she said.
Over text, they decided to meet that evening for drinks at Pepper Kitchen Bar, a rooftop establishment that they each frequented in the San Pedro Garza García suburb of Monterrey.
It didn’t take them long to realize they had many things in common, including a shared love of hiking, skiing and poetry. “Halfway through the date, I turned to Gian and said, ‘Do you realize we’re basically the same person?” Ms. Hinojosa, 37, said. “‘The only difference is that you’re blonde and I’m brunette.’”
Ms. Hinojosa, who was born and raised in Monterrey, where she received a bachelor’s degree in fashion design from the University of Monterrey, is a makeup artist and the founder and owner of the Phoenix by Phoenix + Crown beauty brand.
Mr. Bianchezi, 33, whose parents are from Brazil, was born in Lombardy, Italy, but moved to Monterrey at the age of 2. He received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education and a master’s degree in business administration from the institute’s Graduate School of Management and Business Administration. He is a web developer and the founder and chief executive of Sierra Labs Automation, a global software development company based in Monterrey.
“As we spent more time together, we quickly got to know each other and before long we had both fallen completely in love,” Mr. Bianchezi said.
In 2023, they followed their mutual passion for adventure and decided to temporarily move to Vancouver, British Columbia. It was there that “we got to know each other at a more intimate level, just the two of us discovering new things together,” Mr. Bianchezi said. “I knew then that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.”
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Ms. Hinojosa also determined Mr. Bianchezi was the one during this time. “I was going through a really tough time,” she said, without elaborating, “and Gian said ‘I will be here for you forever. I am not going anywhere.’”
On New Year’s Eve 2023, while the couple was vacationing with Ms. Hinojosa’s family in Whistler, British Columbia, Mr. Bianchezi asked her parents for her hand in marriage. After receiving their blessing, Mr. Bianchezi called Ms. Hinojosa’s sister, Ana Hinojosa, a wedding photographer. “I told her that it was time for me to propose,” he said, “and wanted to include her family.”
Mr. Bianchezi waited until the weekend of Oct. 25, when the whole family would be gathered at her sister’s house in San Miguel de Allende to celebrate Ms. Hinojosa’s parents’ 42nd wedding anniversary, to propose. (By April, the couple had moved back to Monterrey from Canada.) On Friday night, Ms. Hinojosa noticed that everyone was dressed up to go out for dinner. Mr. Bianchezi asked if she wanted her sister to take a photograph of them against the sunset. Once on the rooftop of the house, Mr. Bianchezi said to Ms. Hinojosa, “Ana is about to take very special pictures for the rest of our lives.” With that, he retrieved a ring and proposed.
The couple planned their wedding in about a month because they wanted to be married in Ms. Hinojosa’s grandparents’ home in San Pedro Garza García before it was scheduled to be demolished as part of a luxury apartment development. The house, built in 1968, was where her mother grew up and parents wed.
On Jan. 11, Ms. Hinojosa and Mr. Bianchezi exchanged vows during a Catholic ceremony led by the Rev. Rogelio Narváez Martínez at Parroquia Reina de los Ángeles in San Pedro Garza García. The bride wore a custom-made gown made by Nadia Manjarrez, a designer whom she’s been close friends with since college.
A legal ceremony followed in the garden of Ms. Hinojosa’s grandmother’s house, where the couple were married by Maria Mercedes Elizondo Muñoz, a civil registry officer, in front of 150 close family members and friends. Afterward, they celebrated with a reception that flowed throughout the house, which was dramatically draped with fabric. A “Great Gatsby”-inspired after-party followed.
The wedding “was an unforgettable experience,” Ms. Hinojosa said, “made even more special by the fact that it took place on the same spot where my parents got married 42 years ago.”
The post Three Years After Meeting, He Asked What She Was Doing Later That Day appeared first on New York Times.
