How We Met
Sal and I met in 2006 in high school at the lunch tables in the cafeteria. My friend had a crush on his best friend, which is why him and his friend had come over to the tables in the first place. I had a boyfriend at the time though, so we all ended up hanging out just as friends. The more we hung out though, the more I enjoyed being around him. He made me laugh uncontrollably, and we always had fun. Things ended with my then boyfriend, and Sal and I continued to hang out as friends. Months later he asked me to be his girlfriend on a frozen soccer field in December of 2007. We quickly built a strong relationship together, and I can happily say he’s not only my fiancé, and love, but he’s also my best friend.
how they asked
Sal and I closed on our first home a week before we were set to go on vacation to Mexico, something we planner prior to even putting in an offer on a house. We knew it wasn’t timing out perfectly, but we were ready to get away and enjoy some rest and relaxation before reality hit. When we got to Villa del Palmar, the all-inclusive resort, in Cancun, Mexico, we discovered that they had a photographer who did photoshoots on the beach. Knowing how much I love pictures, Sal quickly set up a session for us the following day, claiming that we could get beautiful pictures to hang over our bed in our new home. I didn’t think anything of it, and when we walked down to the beach, I was just excited to get some nice shots to hang up. We took a couple on the cabana, and then moved down to the beach. We walked down the beach, hearing the camera go off in the distance, and I could when I placed my hand on his heart for a picture, I remember thinking how strange it was that his heart was beating so fast – didn’t he know it was just me… the girl he’d been dating for almost 9 years.
It was at that moment where he pulled away from me, and pulled out a glass bottle out of his pocket, that contained two letters. Now when we first started dating, roughly two months after, in February of 2008, we wrote letters to one another, never showing the other, shoving them into a bottle, and sealing them up. The only way you could get the letter was by breaking the bottle. We never decided when to open them. Well he took those letters out, and asked me to read the one he wrote to me all those years ago. I grabbed it with shaking hands, asking him if he was serious. His letter read: “Baby Girl, You are my heart! I love you so much, which is why I’m so excited to ask you this … Kristyn Nicole Santee… Will you marry me? and officially make me the happiest and luckiest man alive? Love always and forever Salvatore Michael Gentile.” He dropped to his knee and told me he knew all those years ago that he wanted to marry me.
He asked me to be his wife, and I, of course, said yes, still shaking as he slid the ring on my finger. The heart stopping part of the story? My letter said: “Yes. Salvatore Michael Gentile, I Kristyn Nicole Santee, am completely head over heels in love with you. I never want to let you go. I’m in this forever, I promise. I can’t wait for my happily ever after.” We had no idea what each letter said, but our souls knew we were meant to be even all those years ago.
