Arica Leslie and Serjio Bobillo met as many single parents do: through their children. His daughter babysat for Leslie’s two youngsters when both families moved into a new duplex in Thornton five years ago.
Her large clan absorbed Bobillo’s daughter and son into family functions easily, but Bobillo was merely a blur. “I honestly don’t even remember him,” admits Leslie, 28. “He was just the neighbor guy.”
Freshly relocated from San Francisco, Leslie gave up her mortuary career and returned to Colorado to take care of her ailing grandmother. With two small children of her own, Leslie’s plate was plenty full. Plus, Bobillo was married at the time. Why pay attention?
Three years later, however, Bobillo’s daughter called Leslie and said, “My dad wants to ask you something.”
“I found my soul mate,” says Bobillo, 36, an HVAC technician at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “Be sure to get that in there.”
Bobillo and Leslie wanted to include the children beyond having them stand up at their wedding, so they turned to the Mexican tradition of the lasso. “It represents the unseen bond that ties us together,” explains Leslie, who describes her ethnic heritage as mixed.
They married outdoors at the Stone Brook Manor Event Center and Gardens in Thornton on a breezy but warm October afternoon. The bride’s grandmothers wrapped the couple’s shoulders in an heirloom, two-loop, beaded lasso prior to their vows. Then, the Rev. Carrie MaKenna delivered a family blessing as a special, six-looped lasso encircled the couple and all four children, ages 5, 6, 10 and 15.
I didn’t want the wedding to go on without (the kids) realizing they aren’t gaining a stepparent or stepbrothers and sisters, but that we’re a family, ” Leslie explains.
