When Nicole Carfanga first met her boyfriend, Danny Rios, a police officer, she knew she had to cut to the chase.
“I have Lupus,” she said within the first five minutes of their date.
“That’s OK I have asthma,” he replied.
Nicole said Danny always knew how to make her laugh and that’s the biggest thing she loved about him. From that day on, Danny never left her side.
“He came to almost every doctors appointment with me, helped with big-decision making and cried with me when I was finally approved for the only medication specifically for Lupus. We’ve had an amazing three years together, despite being sick,” she said.
One of the main triggers for lupus flares is stress, so Nicole likes to keep life low key. She sometimes has to miss birthday parties or special events if she thinks it might be too much for her. Danny knows this and always makes his best effort to ensure Nicole is happy and calm. But one event they always talked about that Nicole could not miss, would be their wedding one day.
“We knew an event like this would most likely make me very sick, and that’s something we try to avoid as much as possible,” said Nicole.
So Danny did what any good boyfriend would do and started planning a surprise wedding without Nicole ever knowing.
Wait, what?
Yes, you read that right. Danny went on a mission to give Nicole her dream wedding without any stress. The two weren’t engaged yet, they had no plans to do so anytime soon, and here is this man planning a wedding on hope and a prayer.
On Dec. 8, 2017, Nicole arrived home from vacation to a string of lights in her backyard and Danny’s response was “it’s not over yet.”
When she walked into her backyard she saw her whole family and Danny’s family lined up outside. She thought maybe this was a surprise birthday party, but that thought went away very fast.
“I started to realize what was going on because I saw my mom start to cry, I realized my dad was in a suit, I heard a song we love, ‘Fix You’ by Coldplay; and Danny said to me, ‘You know how much I love you, right?'”
Danny proposed but what happened next is even more amazing.
Danny brought Nicole inside to talk for a few minutes after and said only if she wanted to, they could get married right then and there and go to bed that night as husband and wife.
“I kept saying, ‘Yes!’ So much so that Danny made sure I sat and thought about it for a minute. This incredible man knows me – and knows how stressful planning a wedding would have been for me, so we said OK.”
Nicole said the second she realized she was going to be married, all the shakiness and shock went away.
“I was ready to begin my life with this man and what better way than not possibly having to miss my own wedding.”
The wedding was huge success – laid back and filled with love – just the way Nicole dreamed it would be.
“I feel like we truly know the meaning of what ‘in sickness and in health’ is. I wouldn’t have changed anything about that night for the world; and like he suggested, we went to bed that night as husband and wife.”
Wedding photos courtesy of Stephanie Scapellati.
