Javier and Charlene Perez recently caught our eye after sharing a video titled “First Brambleton Snow.”  Thrilled to experience snow for the first time since moving to Brambleton last fall, they delighted in Mother Nature’s splendor and shared their excitement on Brambleton’s Facebook page.  We reached out to say THANK YOU, and discovered their sweet love story.  Javier decided not to tell his wife about our interview so that he would have a nice surprise for Valentine’s Day.  Charlene, we think your hubby is quite the romantic, and we hope you enjoy your first Valentine’s Day in Brambleton!

Tell us about your first date.

Our first date was actually with other people as part of a double date!  She was on a date with my roommate and I was on a date with her friend.  We had a lot of chemistry from the beginning, even though we weren’t on a date with each other.  The next day I asked my roommate if he was thinking of calling her back and he said no, so I asked him if he was ok with me reaching out to her and he said yes.  The rest, as they say, is history.  This is why every time we go out I always tell her that we’re not on a date.

How did you propose?

I proposed at the Orlando International Airport.  She was coming home on a red eye flight from Indonesia and I got my friends to come with me with a video camera and a sign that read “YOU’RE BEING RECORDED SO SAY YES!”  I’ve never seen her so happy and exhausted at the same time.

You’ve been married for almost 4 years.  How would you summarize those years together?

We’ve been married for three and a half years but we’ve been together more than ten.  I know this sounds cliche, but I am so lucky that I was able to marry my best friend. Every year together has been an adventure.

What do you remember about the day you got married?

Our wedding ceremony was outdoors and the forecast said it was supposed to rain.  Luckily, it stopped raining about an hour before we started.

We loved your “First Snow” video that you shared on Brambleton’s Facebook page!  How did you hear about Brambleton and what made you fall in love with the community?

We moved to Virginia around fall 2014 and rented a house in nearby Arcola Center.  We would drive by Brambleton all the time on our way to dinner or the outlets in Leesburg, and always loved how nice the community looked.  We also visited the Town Center quite often. One day, we decided to stop and look at the 2 story villas from Van Metre and thought that it was too good of an opportunity to pass.  I vividly remember after that first visit to the model home, one of the neighbors was walking outside and she approached us and asked if we were buying.  We told her we were very interested and she said “do it, you’re gonna love it here!”  Buying a house in Brambleton is one of the easiest decisions we ever made.

What are some of your happiest memories in Brambleton so far?

Everything has been the happiest memory since we moved to Brambleton! We closed towards the end of October last year so our move-in day, meeting the neighbors, handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters,Thanksgiving, putting up our Christmas decorations, and even OUR FIRST SNOW!!!

What do you look forward to in the rest of your life together?

We look forward to all the progress happening around this community and we hope our lives are filled with lots of joy, success, travel, adventure, great friends and just being able to grow old together.

Humans of Brambleton is our blog feature that focuses on one of the many interesting personalities who calls Brambleton home. If you’re interested in being a future Human of Brambleton, email us at brambletoninfo@gmail.com.