Gretchen RossiandSlade Smileyare celebrating 11 years of love!
In honor of their 11-year anniversary this week, theReal Housewives of Orange Countyalumna, 41, posted a lovingtributeon Instagram, which included photos and videos of the couple and theirdaughter Skylar Gray, who turns 1 in July.
“You are the best part of me ❤️,” Rossi began her tribute. “Yesterday Slade & I celebrated 11yrs together! ?? and it feels like just yesterday we fell in love.”
Over the course of their relationship, Rossi and Smiley, 46, have been through highs and lows together — and their love has only deepened and strengthened as a result.
Gretchen Rossi/Instagram
The couple have known each other for over 20 years, been dating for more than a decade and have been engaged sincesheproposed back in 2013.
When it comes to actually walking down the aisle, the couple still want to get married, but isn’t in a rush.
“You know it’s so funny because I don’t think Slade and I have ever sat there and gone, ‘Do we want to be married, do we not?’ It’s never really been a question. I feel like we just right now, our relationship just works and it’s awesome. I think that we’ve always been like, ‘What and if the timing is right, absolutely we will get married.’ We actually had talked about it a lot more because when you do get pregnant and when you are in this position, it’s like I want the kid to be something [Slade] and us to both have the same last name. You know what I mean? You start thinking about all those things,” Rossi told PEOPLE in December 2018, when theyrevealed their pregnancy.
Explained Smiley, “After the engagement we definitely talked about what the wedding would look like, where it would take place and those details. And we’ve continued to talk about those things, but we also made a decision as a couple that for us, we’re together at this point because we want to be not because we feel like we have to be and a piece of paper’s not going to change that.
Slade Smiley and Gretchen Rossi with daughter Skylar Gray.
“We already have the vision, trust me,” said Smiley.
“I have the whole wedding planned out,” added Rossi.
She also noted that finances are a reason the couple, who got pregnant with Skylar after multiple rounds of IVF, has paused on wedding planning.
“But I think that, you know, a lot of people forget too that it’s very financially expensive, but there’s just a lot that you really do have to put 100 percent of your focus on something like this for it to be successful. Weddings are expensive and IVF is very expensive, so we just decided right now that this stage of our life that it was the more responsible thing to do was to focus on this. And then yes, I think for sure that there will be a day that we go, ‘Okay, we’re so ready to do all this.’ I mean listen, I already have my three dresses designed,” said Rossi.
Still, Rossi is looking forward to the day when the two tie the knot.
“I definitely think there will be a day when we have the wedding we want,” she shared.
source: people.com
