Photo: Cracker Barrel
When Josh Rivera stopped at aCracker Barrelon Sept. 1, 2020, he got his usual lunch — with aside of love.
While waiting for a table at the Casa Grande, Ariz. eatery — where he always orders roast beef, two sides of mac n' cheese, carrots, buttermilk biscuits with grape jelly and a Coca-Cola — Rivera, 38, took a seat in one of therocking chairson the restaurant’s front porch. Moments later, Rebekah Facciuto just happened to sit down next to him.
“We started talking while we were sitting there and decided that we wanted to continue the conversation over lunch,” Facciuto, 36, tells PEOPLE. “It was an instant connection.”
Wilson & Henry Photography
“After we had lunch together, I had the weirdest feeling – I missed Rebekah right away,” Rivera says. “I had never felt that way about someone I had just met before. I prayed, ‘Please let me know this person, even if it doesn’t go anywhere, please give me the privilege of knowing this person because I really like who she is.'”
After their impromptu date, Rivera didn’t want the day to end.
“When I found out Rebekah was a celloist, I knew I had to use the surround sound system in my brand-new car to try and impress her with a new cello song I had just heard,” he recalls. “So, as we left the restaurant, I asked if she would like to listen to this new song with me and to my surprise, she said yes!”
Cracker Barrel
From there, the pair exchanged information and started to talk more and more each day. “Rebekah invited me into her world and as we got closer, our love for each other grew. We developed a friendship and a gradual trust, ultimately leading to me asking Rebekah out.”
Nearly a year after their first meeting, Rivera, who works as a chaplain and a youth pastor, popped the question to Facciuto, a music teacher, in front of family and friends including Facciuto’s daughter Elise, on August 14, 2021.
“There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to propose to Rebekah at Cracker Barrel,” he says. “I started to get lovesick after my first encounter with her and Cracker Barrel played such a huge part in that feeling, I knew I had to propose to her at the same place we met and fell in love.”
Josh & Rebekah Rivera
Adds Facciuto: “My favorite part was watching the love of my life get down on one knee to be my forever person. I do admit that Josh being as handsome as he is didn’t hurt either!”
The couple married twice, first they exchanged vows in a church on September 5, 2021, in Tucson, Ariz., and later read handwritten vows in a hot air balloon on Nov. 5.
“We don’t believe in luck, but we do believe that meeting that one day in September was meant to be,” says Rivera. “We will always remember that special moment on Cracker Barrel’s front porch in the rocking chairs.”
source: people.com
