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Cassie Moronez and Curtis Roberts got married on March 5.
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Instead of traditional white, Moronez wore a bright-red ball gown to the ceremony.
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The dress, which Moronez bought online, paid homage to her parents’ love story.
Cassie Moronez and Curtis Roberts talked for hours the night they met.
Moronez and Roberts, both 27, connected on a dating app in September 2018.
Before they even met, Moronez was drawn to Roberts because of his hazel eyes, which reminded her of sunflowers.
“His eyes were the kindest eyes you could ever see,” she said. “Just something about it reminded me of home and made me feel safe.”
They met up the same day they matched, and they couldn’t stop talking. They became a couple almost immediately, and today, Moronez, an actor, and Roberts, a mechanic, live in Los Angeles, California.
Roberts popped the question in December 2020.
Moronez had known she didn’t want a traditional wedding dress since she was 4 years old.
Moronez told Insider that her parents got married at a courthouse, and they had a party with their family to celebrate their nuptials later.
Although the party wasn’t a formal wedding, Moronez’s mom wore a white dress for the occasion, and her parents shared a first dance.
“The DJ played their song, and it was a song called ‘The Lady in Red’ by Chris de Burgh,” Moronez said. “And my family surprised her by shining a red light on her dress.”
“My mom always talked about being with my dad and how in that moment it was like that one second of feeling totally alone, just being you and that other person,” she went on to say.
From the time she was 4 years old, Moronez knew she wanted to pay tribute to her parents’ love story with her wedding dress by wearing a red gown.
And as she grew up, red felt even more right, as she told Insider she thinks of red as her power color.
Moronez ended up falling in love with a red gown she found online.
As she started planning her own wedding, Moronez knew she wanted a red dress. She said she initially tried shopping at boutiques, but it was difficult to find a red gown in stores.
Moronez even considered buying a white dress and dyeing it herself, but by November 2021 — just four months before her wedding — she decided to try her luck online.
She ended up buying the Rosso Corsa Gown from Teuta Matoshi, a brand she had admired for years.
The gown had a classic bridal shape in a bold color.
Moronez’s gown had a low neckline and an A-line skirt.
The full skirt created a dramatic look, which was accented by puffy, off-the-shoulder sleeves.
To top it off, the entire gown was covered in a delicate floral pattern, adding texture to the dress.
Moronez loved how dramatic and regal the dress was.
Because she’s an actor, Moronez is a big fan of “The Phantom of the Opera,” and she told Insider that one reason she was drawn to her wedding dress was that it looked like a gown Christine Daaé wears during a solo performance in the film adaptation of the musical.
“I told my husband, ‘I want to have my Christine Daaé moment,'” she said.
Moronez paired the dress with a statement headpiece and a coordinating veil.
Moronez wore a red KLATSO headpiece, and she ended up making a red veil with Roberts’ help.
“He went with me to Joann Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, all those kinds of places, to just look for a solution because he knew that I could get it done myself,” she said. “We picked up some tulle. I ordered some applique online, and I spent up until the wedding morning hand-sewing all my little appliques on there.”
“Curtis sat there, and he was the one who initially arranged how the appliques were going to fit,” Moronez added. “He knew how important it was.”
Red Badgley Mischka shoes completed the look.
The dress didn’t end up being ready until two days before Moronez’s wedding.
Moronez custom ordered the dress, but the gown ended up being a bit loose by the time her wedding approached.
“I had an amazing seamstress ready to go in Salinas,” Moronez said. The seamstress was able to dramatically take in the dress within a week.
“Two days before my wedding is when the dress was completely done,” the bride told Insider.
Stephenie Barba and Martina Godwin of Vibe Hair Lounge did Moronez’s hair, and the bride did her own makeup.
Moronez said she ended up feeling gorgeous on her wedding day.
“I was very nervous to see what the outcome was going to be that day,” Moronez said, particularly because she had to rely on fashion tape for support in the bodice rather than a bra.
“But it ended up looking gorgeous,” she said.
Roberts was emotional when he saw Moronez in her dress.
Roberts knew the gown would be red, but he didn’t see the dress until the couple’s ceremony.
“That moment when you’re walking down the aisle, and it’s only about you two, when I locked eyes with him, I could tell it just hit him,” she said. There were some hiccups throughout the wedding day — including losing their rings just before they were set to say ‘I do’ — which made them extra emotional, according to Moronez.
“His face just made me bawl. I started crying so much,” Moronez said. “It was just happy tears.”
Moronez’s mom was on board with the nontraditional look, too.
Moronez said she told her mom the dress would be red and was a tribute to her parents ahead of the wedding. Her mother instantly started crying when she heard.
“She was like, ‘I can’t imagine you in anything else,'” Moronez said. “She was thrilled. She was so happy.”
Moronez changed into a white minidress for her reception.
“We’re very nontraditional people, but I wanted something at least pictured in white,” Moronez said of why she wanted a second dress. Her red gown was fairly heavy as well.
She ended up choosing a white Selkie dress that had a similar silhouette to her red gown.
“I wanted something to complement my other dress,” she said.
She bought a matching veil, and she wore the same red shoes from earlier in the day.
Roberts and Moronez planned the wedding themselves.
The couple tied the knot at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, California.
Because they didn’t have a wedding planner, Moronez and Roberts were still getting things ready for the event the night before. Moronez told Insider she loved how hands-on Roberts was.
“It was just me and him making table numbers, down to the centerpieces he made the night before with my mom,” Moronez said. “He’s always been like, ‘It’s me and you against the problem. It’s never gonna be just you.’ I love him to death.”
Lacey Moranville photographed the event alongside her assistant Alyssa Noelle Photography.
Moronez credits Moranville with helping her to feel comfortable and confident on her wedding day.
“We were super stressed out that day, but my photographer was just like, ‘I’m going to do whatever you need me to do,'” Moronez said of Moranville. “It is crazy she was able to capture beautiful photos even after the tears.”
Her favorite part of the wedding day ended up being her one-on-one photo session with Roberts.
The couple snuck off with Moranville to take photos in a garden after their ceremony. During their time alone, Moronez said she was able to really appreciate that they had finally said ‘I do’ despite the stress of the day.
“There was a moment after taking photos, I looked at Curtis and said, ‘I could just run away with you right now,'” she said. “‘Like we don’t have to go to a reception, we don’t have to deal with anything else. I just want to run away with you.'”
“What went well or went wrong didn’t matter because this is the moment we had been waiting for forever,” she added.
You can see more of Moranville’s work here.
Moronez ended up going viral on TikTok for her dress.
She posted a video of her red dress, which has over 1.5 million views to date.
Some people in her comments said the gown had a “Phantom of the Opera” feel, which Moronez said made her happy.
But ultimately, she’s just glad she chose a dress that had special meaning for her.
“At the end of the day, it makes me feel good in myself,” Moronez said of her gown. “No matter what anybody says, it was a choice I made that I love.”
Moronez loves how communicative Roberts is.
“That’s the best thing about our relationship,” she told Insider. “We’re very open to talking about anything and everything.”
She also said he’s made her feel loved from their first date through how attentive he is.
“He’s my support system 100%,” she added. “It feels meant to be to me.”
“I knew he was the one because his heart is so big,” Moronez said of Roberts.
“The amount of stuff I’ve seen my husband do for other people, even neglecting himself or forgetting about himself because of it, it’s just wild,” she said. “I’m so amazed by him each and every day I wake up.”
“I just love him. He’s everything,” she added. “It’s like a dream come true to me.”
Read the original article on Insider
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