Drumroll PLEASE…. We’re elated to announce DANIELLE & WILL as winners of the 2025 Looks of Love Contest. With over 650 total votes on Instagram over the three days leading up to the winning couple’s announcement we are thrilled to see the Tampa + St Pete audience rally behind their favorite love stories. It’s with gratitude we thank each couple for sharing their heartwarming stories and a huge congratulations to Danielle & Will for taking home a cruise & dinner for two on Yacht StarShip (Tampa or Clearwater) with an upgraded bar package, boarding photo and window table this year. A special thanks to our sponsor Yacht StarShip for generously celebrating the amazing couple.
Winning Couple // Danielle & Will
Photo Credit: Shelby Quast Photography
“We first crossed paths in 2019 while working with a mutual patient with Sickle Cell Disease at our local hospital. Not a great opportunity for really meeting someone. But the real “moment” came soon after. As Will walked down the hospital unit, he saw a girl (Danielle), walking towards him, and waving excitedly at him. Or so he thought.. As Will waved back he was quickly corrected that she was, in fact, waving to her nurse colleague behind him. He may have gotten it wrong, but fate was not finished with us yet. A little while later, we came across each other while enjoying the night life in Tampa. As Will would describe it, “I was looking for my friends when suddenly the room opened up. There was this beautiful girl, pointing at me, and she said, I know you. Bashfully pointing to myself, I approached her, and said ‘oh.. yea.. hey!’ with no idea who she was.” After a fun conversation, a couple more dates, Danielle’s ability to tolerate Will through an Auburn football watch party, and Will experiencing Danielle’s ability to cook (holy cow she is good) we knew we had started something special. We might work in different places now, but our love for caring for patients, random encounters, and that mistaken wave brought us together, and we haven’t looked back since.”
2025 Contest Love Stories
Amanda & Brian
Photo Credit: 9184 Photography
“I (Amanda) had weekly girl’s nights with my best friend Michaela that lived in the same apartment as me. On one of our nights, Michaela convinced me to join a dating website. She had been with her boyfriend for almost 6 years and thought that looking through guys on Hinge would be a fun addition to our girls night. After not thinking I would seriously meet anyone, I agreed. Sure enough a couple days later I came across this guy’s profile, and it instantly caught my attention. His profile picture was a beach one, with him giving the cutest smolder. Interested enough I gave him a like, and the rest was history.”
Aria & Dylan
Photo Credit: BVCOLLECTIVE
“We were introduced in July of 2020 through a mutual friend at our youth group. We danced around each other for a few months, trying to feel out if the other was interested. Aria actually declined the first invitation out because she didn’t realize Dylan was asking her on a date. Once we started dating, we knew we were going to spend the rest of our lives together. We got married at 20 years old on 11/16/23. Every single day we have fallen more and more in love. We travel together, laugh together, and raise our perfect cats together. There is nothing more amazing than falling in love with your best friend.”
Kallie & Alejandro
Photo Credit: Romance Essentials
“My fiancé and I knew of each other in high school but never actually hung out ever. We both ended up at the same college (FSU). We connected our Junior year of college and had a strong friendship for almost a year until we both knew it wasn’t a friendship anymore but that we both had strong feelings for one another. We started dating in 2020 right when Covid hit and we were inseparable, my college sweetheart. We graduated in 2021 and moved down to Tampa Florida. We are now engaged raising our dog and enjoying the life that we’ve been building together. I get to marry my college sweetheart in April of 2027 and I couldn’t be more happy!”
Madison & Isaac
Photo Credit: Hannah T Photography
“Isaac and I met in 2018 while we were students at FSU. We started our relationship somewhat long-distance, as I was completing an internship at Disney World in Orlando while he continued taking classes in Tallahassee. He asked me to be his girlfriend during the fireworks show during one of his first visits to see me. Once my internship was complete, we were inseparable during the rest of our time in college, and adopted our cat, Michael J. In late 2020, after we had both graduated, Isaac received a job offer out in Las Vegas. We took the plunge and spent about a year and a half in Sin City and rediscovering our love of hiking, the mountains, and just the outdoors in general, along with adopting our dog, Shadow. Both being from the Tampa area, we were ecstatic to move back in July 2022 after almost 4 years together. After about a year of life back in Florida, Isaac planned a surprise trip for our 5 year anniversary. He wouldn’t even tell me where we were going! We traveled to St Kitts in the British Virgin Islands, and Isaac proposed on the beach (absolutely no idea on my end). We’re now in final preparations for our wedding next month!”
Rebekah & Mina
Photo Credit: Lyndsay Rae Photography
“So how did the Tampa Native and the Arizona Sweetheart meet?
Mina had just returned to Tampa after a rigorous journey through chiropractic school, while Rebekah was in the final stages of her post-graduate residency. Despite the many friends they had in common, fate had kept their paths apart.
At a wedding, a mutual friend named Demi, who is one of Rebekah’s bridesmaids, had a spark of inspiration and suggested they connect on social media. It was a small, seemingly ordinary gesture that would change everything. Months later, on December 15, 2022, their lives intertwined at The One, a monthly Bible Study and fellowship meeting. Later that evening, they attended a birthday dinner for another mutual friend, Nick. Amidst the lively conversation and shared laughter, Mina and Rebekah exchanged glances that held unspoken promises and small talk that lingered with meaning. As they parted ways that night, both felt a tender but undeniable spark. They each prayed for a sign, a gentle nudge from the universe to help them decide whether to explore this newfound connection further. A few days later, at the Community Outreach service, they both recognized it as the sign they had been waiting for.
Mina mustered the courage to ask Rebekah out, and on December 21, 2022, they shared their first date at Nine Spices. Their conversation flowed effortlessly from cherished Bible stories to dreams and ambitions. They even engaged in a playful debate over the best cookies & cream milkshake in town. To settle the friendly argument, their date ended with a spontaneous trip to Wawa, where Rebekah conceded that Mina’s choice of Wawa’s milkshake was indeed superior to Chick-fil-A’s. In that moment of shared delight and discovery, Rebekah felt a deep, instinctive trust in Mina. From that evening on, their hearts seemed to beat in unison, and they have been inseparable ever since.”
Sandra & Miguel
Photo Credit: Janel Herranz Photography
“When someone is meant for you, no time or distance can keep you apart. Dating my best friends of 14 years has been the best 4 years of my life. We started dating in October 4, 2020. We enjoy going to church, traveling, concerts, eating and hosting our friends. What one of the many things I love about my Fiancé is how he has embraced my son and loves him and much as he loves me. Last Valentine’s Day he asked me to have dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant. He had some “car problems” and asked me to meet him at our old job first, and there at the place we met 14 years ago he asked me to be his wife. There we were just us 2, in the parking lot with the moon as our witness. And in our 5 year anniversary we will become husband and wife. Love has given us a second chance and this time is forever.”
Theresa & Dan
Photo Credit: Lyndsay Rae Photography
“Our story started when my cousins were in high school with my now, husband… They were best friends with him and they knew each other very well. Over the years, he had in different relationships, but always maintained his friendship with my cousins, and we got to know of one another, but never formally met. Fast-forward to 2020, he was in law school in Saint Pete and I lived in Tampa. It just so happened that post-grad life was not very good to us because we were both single and the struggle was real. My cousin had individual conversations with each of us and we had no idea, but she had planted a seed that eventually grew into what we have today. I liked a story on Dan’s Instagram and he started messaging me, we went back back-and-forth for a bit and I don’t think we’ve stopped talking since then. he finally asked me out on a date, and after about three, he officially asked me to be his girlfriend on the night that the Bucs won the Super Bowl. Only 2 1/2 years later he proposed in Portugal, where his family is from, and just south of where mine is from in Spain. we had the best trip and immediately started planning for our wedding and marriage, our faith and our family is most important to us so we wanted to get started right away. We got married 13 months later in the church I grew up going to every Sunday and had the best wedding ever! I thank my cousin all the time for seeing the potential in each of us and the vision of us being together as a couple, my husband and I have been inseparable for the last four years that we’ve known each other. I don’t know how I did life before him.”
A huge thank you to everyone who participated in our 2025 Looks of Love Contest for Tampa + St. Pete! Whether you cast a vote, shared the contest with friends, or simply supported the amazing couples featured, we truly appreciate you. It’s always so special to celebrate love in all its forms, and we’re grateful for the incredible engagement from our community. Stay tuned as we share more love stories from beautiful weddings across Tampa and St. Pete!
