Beauty queens from Argentina, Puerto Rico announce marriage after meeting at pageant

Forget the crown — these beauty queens got the rings.

Mariana Varela and Fabiola Valentín, a.k.a. Miss Argentina and Miss Puerto Rico, respectively, met when both were competing in the 2020 Miss Grand International pageant. On Friday, they were married. The next day, they posted about it on Instagram.

“After deciding to keep our relationship private, we opened those doors on a special day,” they wrote in Spanish on Instagram, sharing the date of their wedding.

The post included photos and videos showing the women traveling, snuggling, kissing and flashing their wedding and engagement rings. They revealed “te amo,” or “I love you,” written in red rose petals on a hotel bed.

Also included: shots from their proposal, which included the balloon message “Marry Me?” covering a decorated window in a room filled with candles and more balloons.

Both women’s Instagram bios indicate they were in the top 10 contestants in the 2020 pageant, which was held in Thailand after being postponed until early 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2020 winner, Abena Akuaba of the United States, had well wishes for the couple, posting in comments, “Omg congratulations MGI brought together a beautiful union.”

On Wednesday, Varela and Valentín both posted a photo in their Instagram Stories showing a coffee mug that read, in Spanish, “The best wife in the world.”

“How nice it is to read each message,” they wrote in Spanish. “Thank you all for your words and good wishes.”

The 2022 Miss Grand International pageant — the 10th annual event — crowned its newest winner Oct. 25 in Indonesia. The bouquet and crown went to Miss Brazil, Isabella Menin. Next year’s pageant will be held in Vietnam.

Miss Grand USA is the branch of the pageant that determines the United States’ entry into Miss Grand International. In 2022 that was Miss Colorado, Emily DeMure.