NEED TO KNOW
Since meeting on Tinder in 2016, Jasmin Sanders and Lauren Retica have been “inseparable”
The pair tied the knot in 2023 and immediately knew they wanted to become parents
As they revisited photos of their younger selves while preparing to welcome their daughter, the Australian couple discovered a surprising detail that proved they were always “meant to meet”
In 2024, as Jasmin Sanders and Lauren Retica prepared to become parents themselves, they decided to take a trip down memory lane, whipping out old photo albums and looking back at their own childhood photos.
Retica’s childhood modeling pictures offered endless possibilities, but a single, unmistakable detail in one of the photos immediately caught Sanders’ attention: a photo of then-4-year-old Retica modeling a pink fairy costume.
“When we turned onto the photo of me in the fairy costume, Jasmin immediately recognized it, and audibly gasped, saying, ‘I had this costume,’” Retica, 30, tells PEOPLE exclusively.
As it turns out, Sanders wore that very same pink costume when she was just 3-years-old — never imagining that the girl from the front cover would one day grow up to be her wife.
Jasmin Sanders & Lauren Retica
When the couple later showed the photo to Sanders’ mother, she was equally stunned and recalled how she had once hunted high and low for that costume after seeing Retica in the ad in 1999.
“We were so shocked and a bit emotional,” Retica shares. “It’s such an exciting thing to discover and feels like a special level of connection we didn’t know we had.”
What’s even more surprising is that Retica’s mom always described her as a “tomboy” who hated dresses – but for this shoot, the toddler miraculously didn’t refuse.
“Much to my mother’s surprise, I apparently hopped straight into the dress with no fuss, something I had never done before,” Retica shares.
It’s moments like these that made her and Sanders believe in the “invisible string” theory – the idea that some connections or moments in life are quietly guided by fate, linking people or events in ways that just feel meant to be.
Nearly 17 years after both girls donned that fairy costume, they met on Tinder and have been “inseparable” ever since. The two traded the pink dress and wings for white gowns when they said “I do” in 2023.
“I think it’s a really special thing to think about having a connection with someone, who you will later in life meet and fall in love with,” Sanders, 29, tells PEOPLE. “I think I was always meant to meet Jasmin at some point in our lives, and our story tells me the universe was linking us together long before we met.”
Jasmin Sanders & Lauren Retica
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With their daughter now 18 months old, Retica reflects on how every choice and turning point in her life seemed to quietly guide her to the family she has built today.
“I feel like all the steps I chose to take in my life lead me to them both, which is where I was always meant to end up,” Retica says.
“My greatest hope for our daughter is that she will be afforded the same blessing of fate, love and timing in her life, and that I can one day watch the joy it brings to her life, the way it has mine.”
Read the original article on People
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.style.yahoo.com ’
