Hitched

Dawn DelCastillo and Molly McConnell. May 24, 2003Dawn DelCastillo and Molly McConnell met while watching a boxing match at the West Portland Boxing Club. Dawn's a fan and a dabbler in the sport, while Molly's a champion amateur welterweight who took home the 2002 National Golden Gloves title. Even though they didn't trade punches inside the ring that February night, serious contact was made.

"I think it was as close to love at first sight as you can get," Molly says of the initial meeting. Dawn, a 34-year-old loan officer, agrees. "From the moment I saw her, I knew I was in trouble."

And though Dawn first laid eyes on Molly's person that night, she already knew Molly's name, image and athletic prowess from a story she read in this very newspaper. WW profiled Molly's boxing skills the month before, in a January 2002 cover story called "Tough Girl" that exposed Molly's devotion to a sport often hijacked by mere pretty faces, former ice queens and daughters of famous male prizefighters.

"She seemed more than just a jock," Dawn says of the first read. Turns out Dawn's impressions were spot-on. Both women eschew lesbian bar culture and are more inclined to contemplate Nietzsche than Dr. Phil and prefer Six Feet Under to Are You Hot? At home, Dawn plays chef, enforcing a dietary regime chock-full of organic nibbles.

Things between the two started heating up that June. "I knew it was serious when we couldn't not talk 50 times a day," recalls Dawn.

Their phone skills would certainly be tested that summer.

Just as Portland's warmest season approaches, so, too, does amateur boxing's tournament season. Molly was about to hit the road. Dawn, a fervent supporter of her partner's career, couldn't take time off from work to travel with her, so the two spoke multiple times a day. Dawn finally did make it to Chicago to witness Molly jabbing her way to that Golden Gloves title.

While Molly traveled the country in search of more championships, Dawn searched in Portland for a different kind of prize. In July, Dawn bought Molly an engagement ring and planned to present it to her on Molly's 30th birthday.

She planned a coastal weekend getaway in Manzanita, a sleepy hamlet just south of Cannon Beach. They ate a birthday dinner and made it to the beach just before sunset. Molly noticed that Dawn seemed nervous. "I knew something was going on," she says, "but I didn't want to assume anything."

As the sun dove down behind the horizon, the couple perched atop a rock, and Dawn popped the question. Molly didn't even flinch. The answer was yes.

The two took six months to plan their wedding. They wanted to have a formal ceremony, with a minister, but also wanted to pepper the occasion with aspects of their daily lives. They chose their favorite Mexican restaurant, La Bonita, as the caterer, and served soft tacos and tamales on the big day. Each invited male and female friends and family to be groomsmen and maids of honor.

The pièce de résistance was the boxing ring a friend built to serve as the couple's wedding platform. The idea to be married inside the ring made sense. "It's a huge part of our life," says Dawn.

On a bright, late-spring afternoon inside the Arnegards Ballroom in Southeast Portland, Molly walked down the aisle and landed in the ring to meet an entirely different fate than usual.

Gone were the shiny shorts, the sports bra, the mouthpiece and the gloves. Molly was all girl, wearing a custom-made, red crushed-velvet dress. Dawn wore a black-and-white suit from Nordstrom. For this match, a referee didn't need to make any calls, and both contenders won.

The newly hitched should email hitched@wweek.com or call 503-243-2122 ext. 250 to be considered.

WWeek 2015