Local couple shares details of their ‘GMA3’ engagement
San Antonio personal trainer Marissa Dawn Larochelle thought she was invited to appear on “GMA3” to talk about her weight loss journey, and that her boyfriend Julio Lopez was there mostly for support.
So she was surprised by how anxious he was as she waited backstage to appear on the ABC afternoon lifestyle show.
“I thought it was about me, and didn’t even realize that he was going to be on camera, and he was so nervous,” said Larochelle, 33, an alum of O’connor High School. “He was pacing back and forth, and I’m like, ‘Babe! Why are you so nervous? You don’t even have to do anything! Calm down!”
What she didn’t know was that the couple had been selected by the show’s producers for “Wedding in a Week,” a segment in which a couple gets engaged on a Monday and married the following Friday. Lopez, 40, was in on the plan — that’s why he was so nervous. When the show reached out to Larochelle about coming on the show, she talked about her loving boyfriend, and they asked if they could talk to him, too.
“I told them, ‘I love her, and one day I want to marry her,’ ” said Lopez, a Jefferson High School graduate who runs a plumbing company with his dad. “And they’re like, “That’s what I’m leading to. Would you be willing to go all the way and marry her on national television?’ ”
He was. All he had to do to get things rolling was surprise her with an on-air proposal.
The couple made their national debut on the show on Feb. 20, starting with a prerecorded report focusing partly on the couple’s relationship, including footage of them working out together. Then they appeared live on camera, seated side-by-side. She briefly talked about her decision to get healthy and how she had lost 140 pounds, taking her from a size 24 to a size 6. She documented her weight-loss journey online. Her Youtube channel, 70lbs of Life, has nearly 80,000 subscribers, and she has nearly 33,000 followers on Instagram.
One of the hosts then asked if she really thought that’s what she was on the show to talk about — a cue for Lopez to take her hand, pull her out of her chair and then drop to one knee and ask her to marry him. She said yes, and correspondent
Rocsi Diaz pulled out a ring box with the pearl-cut stunner than Lopez had selected for her the day before on a shopping trip to Kay Jewelers that was arranged by the show.
The ring is part of the Neil Lane Collection, and Lane himself helped Lopez select it.
“I can’t stop staring at it,” she said. “I’ll reach for something with my hand and I get distracted.”
With the ring on her finger for the first time, the show’s hosts told her that she and Lopez would be getting married at the end of the week. The show arranged everything, and followed the process as the bride chose her wedding dress and her flowers and as she and her husband-to-be got advice on married life. It all ended with their wedding on a flower-decked “GMA3” set.
They exchanged vows they
wrote themselves. She thanked him for being so loving and re-racking her weights at the gym; he promised to hold the camera steady while recording her social media content, which made her laugh. He also repeated something he had said during his proposal: “The girl who doesn’t ask for anything deserves everything.”
Even without the involvement of television cameras, Lopez said he had planned to marry Larochelle this year. The lease on their apartment will be up soon, he said, and it feels like the time is right for them to buy a home — but he wanted to get married first.
The couple got together in September 2020 after meeting on a dating app. They had their first socially distanced date at the Hoppy Monk, where they could chat outdoors. At the end of the night, he gave her a hug and asked if he could see her again. She made him wait a bit before making plans, which he liked. And his willingness to wait told her something important.
“My whole thing was, if he’s serious and he’s interested in me, then he will wait and will be patient,” she said. “I was always looking for a man who was patient. Besides my father, Julio is the most patient man I’ve ever met.”
They swiftly became a couple and learned that their paths had been crossing offand-on for a while — they just hadn’t realized it. They lived in the same apartment complex and had lived in the same neighborhood before. He learned after their first date that his best friend was a fan of hers. And he had raced against her brother, a fellow car enthusiast.
“There’s so many things that fall into place with her, even something so little as what she does for a living,” Lopez said. “In the past several years, before I met Marissa, I would make little videos.that was a little side passion of mine. And then, here comes the woman of my dreams into my life, and that’s what she does for a living.
“Our worlds collided. I was doing this, and now I can do this for her.”
They flew home to San Antonio Sunday, and Larochelle has been happily adjusting to her new relationship status.
“I’ve been practicing calling him husband and hubby, and it’s been amazing,” she said. “We are so happy and blessed.”