When Her Reality Journey Ended, A Real Life Romance Began

On January 17, 2019, Nicholas James Wehby first saw Sydney Maree Lotuaco. But it was not a real life sighting.

“Nick saw me on ‘The Bachelor’ season 23,” said Ms. Lotuaco, who voluntarily left the show in week six. Mr. Wehby had viewed his roommate, Michael Perazzo, as a guilty pleasure. “He took a liking to me from the moment he saw me on the show,” Lotuaco said, adding that he had also appeared on the “Bachelor in Paradise” spin-off.

“I look back on the program very positively,” Ms. Lotuaco said. “I met my husband in a roundabout way by going on the show.”

Mr. Wehby had mentioned his interest in Ms. Lotuaco to Mr. Perazzo, who encouraged him to contact her. Mr. Wehby said he thought: “I really have nothing to lose.”

So, on December 11, 2019, he sent her a direct message on Instagram.

They sent a couple of messages back and forth. But that was the extent of it.

On three occasions between the end of January and the end of February 2020, they briefly exchanged messages again. “From time to time he would come over to comment on things that he was doing,” Lotuaco said. “He was always trying to respond to everyone, which included him.”

The couple, both 31, say that what they call the “official back and forth” began on March 21, 2020, in the early days of the pandemic, when Lotuaco had more time to engage in messages. “It was fun keeping each other company at the beginning of a very unknown time,” he said.

There were many jokes. “That’s one of the things I like to think she likes about me: my sense of humor,” Wehby said. “But I also didn’t know if she was just humoring me. So I gave him an out, gave him my number, and texted him, ‘If you’re ever in town, come see me.

She texted 30 seconds later. She was in Ohio at the time; her in Virginia at her childhood home. Both were waiting for the pandemic to pass.

That was on April 3, 2020. After that, their banter “quickly turned into a full relationship after a few days back and forth via DMs and texts,” Lotuaco said.

They first spoke using FaceTime a week after that text. Ms. Lotuaco said that she considers it her first date. “I didn’t warn him that she would call him, but I wanted to see what she was like and if maybe I was being cheated on,” Lotuaco said. “We talked for hours.”

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The call caught Mr. Wehby completely off guard. “It was late at night,” he said. “I was lying on the couch playing video games with friends. My first thought was: ‘This is a mistake.’ But it keeps ringing, so I have to answer.”

“It was like zero to 100,” Lotuaco said of that night. They continued to call each other every night. “We were basically dating after that first call,” he said.

Still, Mr Wehby said he was sure she would “get over it and not be interested”. she did not do it

“He was my first boyfriend,” Lotuaco said. “We couldn’t do anything but talk and that really worked for me. It was a very traditional way of creating a relationship, but in a modern way.”

It wasn’t until three months later that they met in person. She flew to Cincinnati on June 10, 2020. “It was weird seeing each other off a screen and finally being able to hold hands and touch each other,” Lotuaco said. “We agreed to kiss right when we met so as not to wait for the inevitable. It was definitely a risk, but luckily it worked perfectly.”

They drove to Virginia Beach together on June 17, 2020 and became “instagram official” the next day.

Mr. Wehby drove back to Cincinnati on June 21. And on July 23, Ms. Lotuaco flew to Cincinnati for a visit and never left.

“We definitely had a lot of logistical factors that didn’t make sense,” he said, “but we didn’t let that stop us from falling in love.” Ms. Lotuaco officially moved into Mr. Wehby’s home in Cincinnati that August, where the two continue to live.

Ms. Lotuaco, who grew up in Virginia Beach, is a host of the “Something to Share” podcast, as well as a content creator, fitness instructor, and former professional dancer for the New York Knicks basketball team. She has a bachelor’s degree in dance from Marymount Manhattan College.

Mr. Wehby, who is from Mason, Ohio, has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Indianapolis. He is the key account manager for Kaivac, a specialist manufacturer of cleaning systems.

On June 22, 2013, when Mr. Wehby was in his junior year as a college football player, he dove into a pool at a family friend’s graduation party and dislocated and fractured his C3 vertebrae. and C4. He was instantly paralyzed from the neck down.

“The other guy who was still in the hot tub heard my head hit the bottom of the pool and he jumped up and protected my neck. He was 6 feet tall and weighed 200 pounds,” Mr. Wehby said. “Fortunately, he was bigger and stronger than me.”

Mr Wehby was rushed to hospital and his family was told to say goodbye. They were then told that they had managed to save his life, but there was no chance he would walk again.

However, the next day, Mr. Wehby discovered that he could move his left leg slightly, and the next day he could sit up, wiggle his toes, and clench his hands. On June 25, 2013 he took his first three steps. And just a day later, he was released from the hospital.

Mr Wehby said he is now almost fully recovered.

“When I heard this story, I knew he was real,” Ms. Lotuaco said.

On December 5, 2021, Mr. Wehby proposed to Ms. Lotuaco. The two had written a journal that they had passed around while dating long distance and Mr. Wehby wanted to incorporate that into his engagement.

“So, he worked out a plan with one of our photographer friends who approached me about doing a photo shoot together,” Ms. Lotuaco said. “She came up with the idea that we write letters to each other so we could exchange them during the photo shoot for ‘cute pictures.’”

Ms. Lotuaco wrote hers on paper and Mr. Wehby in their shared journal. They then exchanged them and read them to each other. “What Nick ended up writing in our journal was his proposal to me,” Lotuaco said. “I was shocked.”

The couple tied the knot on May 13 before 121 guests at the Mimosa Barn in Cape Charles, Virginia. Girard Larkin, a friend of a bridesmaid and a minister who was ordained through a nondenominational Christian church in Chesapeake, Virginia, officiated at a ceremony that was led by Mr. Perazzo, the roommate who had encouraged Mr. Wehby. to contact Mrs. Lotuaco.

“It seemed like someone was taking care of us,” Ms. Lotuaco said of the day. “The high percentage chance of rain was stopped so we could have the outdoor ceremony we dreamed of.”

“My dad and my brother surprised us with a song in honor of my grandfather, which he sang at my aunt’s wedding,” he added. “The rain started right when he started singing.”

Mr Wehby said: “The amount of love that surrounded Sydney and I was almost overwhelming at times. I only felt that level of love once in my life, when I was in the hospital after my injury. It’s crazy to think that the best day and worst day of my life felt exactly the same.”

In this day

When May 13, 2023

Where Mimosa Barn, Cape Charles, Va.

like magic At the reception, the father of the bride, Nicanor Lotuaco, performed a magic trick as part of his speech. “My dad technically met Nick over Zoom performing the same magic trick,” Ms. Lotuaco said.

Recycled Dress Ms. Lotuaco had her mother’s wedding dress redesigned into a rehearsal dinner dress for herself and a handbag for her mother. “My mom loved the bag,” she said. “It was very special to share that with her and give her dress a second life. The dress had been in a box for 30 years.”

Hosted by In exchange for the social media content, the couple’s wedding rings were gifted by Tacori. The bride also received jewelry rentals from Verstolo and shoes from Bella Belle. The bridesmaids’ dresses were from Revelry and the nightwear from Birdy Grey.

Traditional Touches The couple buried a bottle of bourbon at the wedding site to protect themselves from the rain, a Southern tradition that partially worked. Ms Lotuaco said they also “had a phone guest book to symbolize how we met on the phone”.