“Neither one of us had been on a blind date before, so it was a first one for both of us,” Paul says. “As far as when we met, I think we were both very, very cautious; we had our defense mechanisms up. The first initial date was with the couple who introduced us, so it was like a double-date. The next time, we went on a lunch date and we went by ourselves to try to get to know each other.”
Before Paul Finocchiaro, who is a professor of theater at the University of Tampa, and Eddie Rodriguez, who is a hair stylist and makeup artist, were residents of the Sunshine State, they lived in Las Vegas and, for a brief period of time, Minnesota. The two were performers in Las Vegas and met on a blind date set up through friends.
During that time, Paul was considering moving back to New York. He didn’t expect much to come out of the blind date with Eddie, but they ended up meeting up for another date, and this time just the two of them, and they ended up chatting and getting to know each other over lunch – for almost six hours. After several dates with Eddie, he decided to stay in Las Vegas because he felt that he saw something special could come out of what he and Eddie had.
“At first, I was completely ready to move back to New York at the time, and then I met him and we started dating,” Paul says. “We dated a little more and a little more, and then I decided it wasn’t time to move back to New York. I said ‘I’m going to stay in Las Vegas and see where this takes me.’ That’s how we really started to get real serious, but we took our time.”
Both Eddie and Paul agreed that they would take their time in their relationship because they both had been in long-term relationships before that didn’t work out, and they both wanted this one to work out and not jump into anything too quickly.
“My favorite thing about Paul is his endless energy and his compassion,” Eddie says.
Paul decided in 2001 that he wanted to go to graduate school in Las Vegas, finishing a program as UNLV with his master’s degree in theater. He then received a job offer one month before he graduated in Minnesota at a college campus, and the couple moved there and stayed in Minnesota for nine years.
As the years passed, the love they had for each other grew stronger. In 2001, they had a ceremony in Key West to celebrate their love and relationship, because they didn’t believe that there would ever come a point where they’d be able to get married. But on a December evening, while they were watching the news on TV, a banner flashed at the bottom of the screen saying how same-sex marriage would become legal in Florida on Jan. 6. And while the couple anticipated all the political backlash that they thought might stall the legalization date of same-sex marriage in Florida, when it became legal on Jan. 6, they started planning for their big day.
“It was fantastic,” Eddie says. “It was really a great day. It was very emotional, and we stopped a lot about that day. We had a driver come and drop us of because it was outside on the veranda so there steps leading up to that point, but everybody had been seated at that point. And like we said, we didn’t have any wedding parties, it was just us. As soon as we got out of the car and started walking up the stairs, everybody started applauding. As we got up the steps, everybody started screaming and they stood up. We had to wait a little bit because of the overall response was just a lot of love and we really felt special that day because you know, it was 20 years in the making.”
They had 135 people come to the wedding. One of their closest friends, who now lives in L.A., and they’ve known since around the same time they met in Las Vegas, performed the ceremony. Paul and Eddie’s sisters brought them their rings to give to each other. After they exchanged rings, they went over to each other’s families and hugged them to symbolize that they were now a part of them.
They are planning on going to London and Paris next summer for their honeymoon. And both are very big theater-goers, so if they could turn their love story into a play or musical, they would call it “21 years and Counting” – because that’s how long they’ve been together,and they can’t wait to keep adding the years on.
YEARS TOGETHER: 21 years in February 2016
ENGAGEMENT DATE: August 18, 1995.
WEDDING DATE: September 19, 2016
WEDDING VENUE: They had the ceremony on the veranda at Plant Hall on the University of Tampa campus. They had their reception in the lobby of Plant Hall in the music room.
WEDDING PLANNER: They planned the wedding themselves.
WEDDING FLOWERS: Their neighbors did the flowers, with hydrangeas and purple calla lilies being used.
WEDDING THEME/COLORS: Since they both have different styles, they didn’t want to match but instead wanted to dress in a way that would represent who they were.
FIRST SONG: “I.O.U.” by Lee Greenwood
INTERESTING FACT: They met on a blind date through friends who set them up on.
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