Rebecca Villamizar spent years trying to introduce her two best friends, but they were never in the same city long enough to meet.
That is, until December 2020 when Salvador Jesús Salazar, her best friend from high school in Venezuela, traveled to Miami to see his brother.
While in the U.S., Mr. Salazar recalled thinking, “What am I going to do in Venezuela now?” given Venezuela’s political unrest; a serious injury he suffered in 2019 while volunteering as a paramedic for protesters; and the pandemic.
Mr. Salazar and Maria Daniella Aguado, Ms. Villamizar’s close friend from college, finally met in April 2021 at Ms. Villamizar’s home in Miami.
Ms. Aguado said her conversation with Mr. Salazar flowed as if they had known each other for a long time. They later exchanged Instagram handles. “I had no idea how important this night would become,” Ms. Aguado said.
The two continued to see each other at gatherings of mutual friends. “We slowly started flirting,” she said.
That May, a few days after she mentioned her favorite Thai restaurant, Ms. Salazar texted to ask Ms. Aguado to dinner at Lung Yai Thai Tapas in Miami. “Salvador was so nervous he broke a plate, and, somehow, it made the night even better,” Ms. Aguado said.
After dinner, they went for drinks at Sake Room, where things became a little intense. “We are having beers, and he stopped out of nowhere and confessed that this felt different from anything he’d ever experienced,” Ms. Aguado said.
They both left that night feeling like something big was in store.
“After our first date, things progressed like a roller coaster,” she said. “Smooth but exhilarating.”
That August, both contracted Covid. “We quarantined together, and basically started unofficially living together” in her apartment in Coral Gables, Fla. “It was kind of the perfect excuse,” she said.
They officially moved into a new apartment together in June 2022. Around that time, Ms. Aguado’s younger brother, Carmelo, was diagnosed with cancer at 17. “It was incredibly painful and overwhelming, but Salvador never left my side,” she said.
In September 2022, Mr. Salazar began talking about marriage. But, Ms. Aguado said, “I was still scared and emotionally recovering from my brother’s health scare, so he patiently gave me time.”
By June 2023, Ms. Aguado’s brother had received a clean bill of health. “It felt like a huge weight lifted,” she said.
So the early hours of Christmas Day, Mr. Salazar handed Ms. Aguado a tiny box and proposed with a diamond ring. “He told me to close my eyes, and when I opened them, there it was — the promise of a lifetime together,” she said.
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In early 2024, the couple set out to plan a wedding in Venezuela. But as political unrest intensified following July’s presidential elections, they were forced to postpone. Fearing that Mr. Salazar’s Temporary Protected Status could be revoked amid the Trump administration’s renewed efforts to dismantle the program, they opted to marry sooner.
Ms. Aguado, 27, grew up between Maracaibo, Venezuela, and Miami. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Florida International University in Miami and is currently pursuing an M.B.A. through a hybrid program at N.Y.U. She works as a marketing specialist at LaCroix Sparkling Water, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Mr. Salazar, 29, grew up in Caracas, Venezuela. He holds two associate’s degrees in dental hygiene from the University of Santa Maria in Caracas and Florida Health Institute. He works as a part-time dental hygienist in Fort Myers, Fla., and owns Blumind, a business consulting firm.
The two were married at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse by Claire Petit Louis, a Miami-Dade County deputy clerk, on March 5 — also known as “305 Day,” an unofficial holiday based on the city’s area code. Rosaura Salazar and Victoria Sánchez, friends of the couple, served as witnesses. After the ceremony, they celebrated over a lunch with friends at Mandolin Aegean Bistro in Miami’s Design District.
The couple will host a wedding celebration for 100 guests this December at Posada Paraiso Queen, an inn in Tucacas, Venezuela — “exactly in the middle between Caracas and Maracaibo,” Ms. Aguado said. “The cities where Salvador and I were born.”
