With a beautiful smile lighting up her face, Sophie Delezio can’t contain her joy as she begins to organise her dream wedding to the cute boy she met in Year 9 after he proposed to her with candles, rose petals and a diamond ring on Valentine’s Day.
The high school sweethearts are ready to tie the knot!
(Image: Woman’s Day)‘When I saw all these rose petals, I thought this is romantic, we can order in some Domino’s and watch a movie,’ giggles Sophie, who was caught completely by surprise when boyfriend Joseph Salerno dropped to one knee.
The pizza and movie were put on hold after Joseph’s sweet and thoughtful proposal that involved a stressful last-minute change of plans and a scrapbook full of beautiful moments in their relationship.
‘There were definitely tears. As soon as I saw her reaction I was like, ‘Oh God’, and I started to cry. I was actually trembling,’ reveals Joseph, before Sophie chimes in to admit she was also overwhelmed with emotion. ‘We were both crying,’ she says.
Joseph proposed to Sophie on Valentine’s Day.
(Image: Woman’s Day)In the months following the engagement, Sophie revealed that she underwent surgery in order to walk down the aisle for her special day. She took to Instagram to share the news of her recovery to her followers.
“Life threw me a major curveball and I had to undergo surgery in order for me to walk down the aisle next year,” she wrote.
“Plus, in the midst of all that chaos, we moved house right in the middle of my recovery! I’m all settled now and on the mend but so ready to catch up with all of you! Thank you all for your patience and support! I’m excited to be back.”
Sophie revealed she had undergone surgery in October.
(Image: Instagram)FRIENDS AT FIRST SIGHT
Sophie, 22, and Joseph, 23, met in Year 9 at Oxford Falls Grammar and soon became fast friends, spending afternoons together and even going as each other’s dates to their Year 10 formal, although their relationship remained platonic.
That was until Sophie headed to London for a year to study in 2020, and Joseph realised just how much he missed his best friend.
‘As soon as she came back we started dating,’ says the Neutral Bay chef. ‘Once I saw her again, I was like, ‘OK’.’
‘I think we both had to live a bit of life and experience a bit, and go through hardships and other life-changing events before we ended up together,’ smiles Sophie, who spent last year travelling to 26 different countries with Joseph.
Distance made the heart grow fonder for Joseph, with the couple dating once Sophie returned from London.
(Image: Woman’s Day)MAKING MEMORIES
Sharing her exciting wedding plans with Woman’s Day, budding journalist Sophie says she is happy to have found the love of her life and is bubbling over with excitement about tying the knot with Joseph in the NSW Hunter Valley next year.
‘We have the date booked and we have found a venue,’ Sophie reveals, adding that they chose a place in the Hunter Valley because her maternal grandpa once owned a vineyard there and it holds special memories.
‘It was always a dream of mine to get married somewhere with a personal connection and still close enough for our grandparents to attend. The vineyard is not actually the one my grandpa used to own. That’s a beautiful venue but it’s a bit too small.’
There is so much love for this couple that Sophie and Joseph are struggling to keep the guest list at 160 because they want to invite all the special people in their lives, including the doctors who performed more than 100 operations to save Sophie’s life after two devastating accidents.
The couple are set to wed in a sentimental Hunter Valley ceremony next year.
(Image: Woman’s Day)REAL-LIFE SUPERHERO
Australia got to know and love Sophie when she was terribly injured after a car crashed into her childcare centre in 2003, leaving her with third-degree burns to 85 per cent of her body.
Who can forget the heartbreaking images of a bundled Sophie, who also lost both feet, a number of fingers and an ear in the shocking accident?
Then, tragedy struck again almost three years later when she suffered a heart attack, a broken jaw and shoulder, rib fractures and a tear in her left lung after she was hit by a car and thrown 18 metres while being pushed across a pedestrian crossing in her wheelchair by her nanny.
It’s brave Sophie’s indomitable spirit, beautiful caring nature and sparkling blue eyes that captured Joseph’s heart. ‘She’s always putting everyone else before herself. Sophie’s the most genuine person I know,’ he says.
Australians fell in love with Sophie and her perseverance.
(Image: Getty)PERFECT MATCH
Sophie says she fell in love with Joseph’s determination to stay true to himself – and his sense of fun!
‘He is the most pure person I have ever met. He has the kindest heart,’ she tells.
‘He loves his family more than anything else in the world, and he puts his friends and close relatives above anyone else.’
Sophie says the hardships she has endured have made her realise that life is short and precious, and that her engagement is the start of a new and wonderful phase of life.
‘There is so much hardship in life, why not just take the beautiful moments and hold onto them? Hold onto the beautiful things in your life as much as possible – and that’s what we do,’ she says.
The couple have already worked out many of the details of their big day – even if Sophie is keeping the exact details of her white wedding gown a secret.
‘Our idea for a wedding is nature-filled and very open with earthy colours. The bridesmaids won’t have cake-face or insane hairdos, just natural beauty. I also like the idea of doing native flowers,’ she says.
‘He has the kindest heart.’
(Image: Woman’s Day)BEAUTIFUL BRIDE
And the dress is something she’s dreamed about since childhood. ‘I used to drive past this store as a kid and look in the window at all the beautiful dresses and think that if I ever did get married I wanted to get my dress from that store,’ she says.
‘All I know is it will be white and long. Not too puffy. I definitely want flowy, and no, I won’t be wearing a tiara. And yes, it will be princessy in some way!’
Sophie is also planning to dust off the incredible diamond heart and pearl drop earrings that Italian movie star Sophie Loren gave her in 2007 for the big day.
‘They are the most beautiful earrings you could ever imagine,’ she says.
And as for something old, Sophie reveals she will be wearing the special prosthetic legs she had made so she could wear 10cm heels to her Year 10 formal and dance the night away
with Joseph.
‘That’s a full-circle moment, wearing those same legs for the wedding,’ she says, adding that they will both write their own vows, and play the 1963 Ronettes classic Be My Baby for their first dance as husband and wife.
‘We are thinking of taking a cruise to Antarctica for our honeymoon. We’ve already bought our own place, and yes, kids would be nice, but we’re still young and have so much life to live before we decide on anything like that.’
