Amanda and Chris: Not Your Typical Meeting

Written by: Clare Spencer

Photography by: Matt Montalvo

http://mattmontalvo.com/

Amanda (but she prefers Mandy) knew she was way too late to catch her flight home to Dallas when she arrived at the airport in Philadelphia. She hurried to the service counter, rushing past other travelers, ignoring the man offering to pay people twenty dollars in exchange for the use of their phone.

“Who is this crazy guy?” she thought to herself as she stood in line to determine her options for flights home. Unfortunately, the only available flight was the next morning. Mandy, having no other choice, accepted her standby ticket and turned to exit the building. As she turned to leave she came face to face with the cellphone man who had been within ear shot this whole time.

“Can I use your cellphone? I’ll pay you twenty dollars,” the man asked.

Having already returned her rental car and being completely out of cash for a cab, Mandy responded, “I’m obviously not going anywhere for a while, so you can just use my phone.”

Before the exchange could happen, the airline employee stepped in and offered the man the use her desk phone. Feeling hopeless Mandy proceeded outside to a nearby bench and broke down. When she looked up from crying the man was beside her. Sitting down he said,

“I couldn’t help but over hear your situation.” And he offered to help her. He introduced himself and proceeded to explain his situation. His name was Chris and was from Chicago. He was in Philadelphia for a work conference and, feeling exhausted from the work weekend, he had left his phone in the cab that had brought him to the airport. Once he got his phone back Chris started making calls in an attempt get Mandy on a flight home that same day. With still nothing available Mandy cried again, feeling over-whelmed. Brushing her tears away Chris said,

“Don’t cry, Niagara Falls. I’m not going to leave you here alone. That would just be rude.”

“At that moment, I looked into his eyes and immediately knew in my heart, I would marry this man one day.”

Chris had friends in town who were willing to house Mandy for the night and made sure she was up in plenty of time the next morning to get to her flight. Having exchanged numbers, Chris and Mandy continued to talk everyday through social media and by phone until one day Chris surprised her with a ticket to come visit him for the Fourth of July weekend. And they’ve been together ever since.

Seven years later the couple took a trip to the Bahamas during the winter holidays. They were out for dinner Christmas day and Chris surprised Mandy with a bottle of her favorite wine. As she raised her glass to take a sip, Chris suddenly shouted for her to stop. Chris immediately stood beside her, went down on one knee, pulled out a ring and said,

“I want our first drink to be as us engaged. Will you marry me?"

Mandy had no idea what kind of dress she wanted when she arrived at Mimi’s. She knew she didn’t want to look like a “huge white cupcake” (her words). Having tried numerous styles and silhouettes, Mandy narrowed it down to two gowns. Not being the type who rushes, Mandy took the rest of the day to think about it and returned the next day. When she put the Allure Couture strapless, beaded bodice, all lace ballgown back on she knew for sure that this was ‘The One.’

“I never felt so pretty in a dress before…”

Her best advice for the gown: “Take your time and make sure you find the one that makes YOU happy, not everyone else.”

Mandy has quite a large family so, to make things easier, the wedding was held at Villa St. Clair near Austin, Texas. The ceremony included many Hispanic Catholic traditions which was very important to Mandy and her family. One of her favorite moments was when she and Chris were able to get away from all the noise and the people to do photos in a nearby field.

“Those 30 minutes or so of quiet time […] were surprisingly, blissfully quiet and relaxing.”

Her best advice for the wedding day: “Take a moment to soak everything in.”