“She’s always who she is,” Karla says about Jill. “No matter where she’s at, and as much as it might drive me crazy sometimes, she’s just genuinely Jill.”
Jill Bracero, 36, who is a registered nurse at Florida Hospital East, and Karla Mundo, 31, who is a registered nurseat Florida Hospital Orlando, met in 2007 on MySpace.
“It was just random,” Karla says. “Jill was still living in New York, and I was living in Puerto Rico at the time. I stumbled across a request from her, and I went to her page and thought she was interesting. We started messaging back and forth, and then we started talking on the phone. Eventually four months later, we met in person—and that’s where it started.”
Karla offered to help her sister move in, and Jill suggested that they meet as she was going to be in Florida. Karla even extended her trip five extra days, because once she was here and met Jill, she didn’t want to leave. Jill said she was nervous because it was meeting a new person. She didn’t know what to expect.
“She always knows what to say and how to say it,” Jill says. “She’s good with words.”
Over time, their relationship grew, they became closer and put down roots in Orlando.
“It was always a work in progress,” Karla says about their relationship. “We kind of grooved together through the years.”
Jill was the inspiration to Karla to become a nurse. She says despite being nurses, working in different units allows them to share different stories with each other.
Jill told a couple friends that she decided she was going to propose to Karla, so she told everyone to go to Parliament House, and that’s where she was going to propose. She put together a video with music that she was able to put on the television screens at Parliament House, thenJill appeared out of nowhere and dropped down on one knee and popped the question.
“There was so many times that I could have sworn she was going to propose,” Karla says. “But this time, she completely had me stumped.”
Karla recalls that it was something like out of a movie. Following the proposal, the unforgettable night wasfull of celebration with their closest friends.
For about a year, the couple was going back and forth about just having a commitment ceremony,because marriagewas illegal in Florida at the time. Once it was legal, they started looking at venues. In March 2015, they booked Crystal Ballroom on the Lake because they loved it.
They both said their most memorable moment from the wedding day were their first looks—it was very emotional and special. The wedding also was unforgettable and very special for them both, too.
“I feel secure,” Jill says. “There’s no difference in what we felt before to now, but that little piece of paper makes me feel secure that if something happens to me, Karla will get the house and all that.”
They went to Savannah for a couple of days, but the couple is taking a cruise in November for their honeymoon.
YEARS TOGETHER: 8 years
ENGAGEMENT DATE: December 20, 2013
WEDDING DATE: January 23, 2016
WEDDING VENUE: Crystal Ballroom on the Lake in Altamonte Springs
WEDDING OF COORDINATOR: Charlene Areizaga
WEDDING CATERER: R&Y Catering
WEDDING COLORS: Plum, lavender, silver and ivory
FIRST SONG: A ballad and bachata medley of “Stand by Me”.
INTERESTING FACT: Karla pursued her nursing degree after being inspired by Jill’s nursing stories.
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