Amy Badia first caught Daniel Naranjo’s attention in pre-K. But it wasn’t until high school that he had the courage to talk to her in person.
Amy Milagro Badia and Daniel Naranjo share a “memory box” from their 12-year relationship.
In it is a plane ticket from his first trip to Moca, Dominican Republic, where her family is from; an Eiffel Tower key chain from their vacation to Paris; the cork from the champagne bottle they popped the night of their proposal; and love letters they wrote each other in high school.
Ms. Badia took out mementos from the box a few days before her wedding, getting emotional as she reminisced.
“One of the first things Daniel ever taught me was how to draw a rose,” Ms. Badia said of their high school years. “And on all of our love letters, there’s little roses that we’ve drawn each other.”
“You could just see the love from the beginning,” she added. “We’ve talked about this day for so long, and now, it’s here.”
Technically, Ms. Badia and Mr. Naranjo, both 29, met in prekindergarten in Englewood, N.J., where they’re both from, but she doesn’t remember him. He does, though: “She was part of the cool kids in the pre-K class,” he said. (During their adult years, they discovered photos together from prekindergarten, including a photo of them posing at his birthday party.)
After prekindergarten, Mr. Naranjo and his family lived in West Palm Beach, Fla., for a few years before returning to Englewood, where the two attended the same middle school and high school. In middle school, he said, he sent her some messages on Myspace, but she never responded to them. (Again, she doesn’t recall this.)
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