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MTV channel's cameras add pressure to Tampa wedding

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 8, 2010

TAMPA - Cindy Almanzar and Maykel Rivera were not sure how their wedding would turn after a film crew from an MTV channel got involved.

The Tampa couple says the thought of being on television put added pressure on them but it was worth it.

"The cameras slowed everything down a lot, but it worked out for a wonderful experience," says Cindy.

The November wedding of Cindy, 24, and Maykel, 30, will be featured on tonight's episode of ''Quiero Mi Boda," a new reality show on MTV Tr3s.

The program which airs at 9 p.m. every Monday features couples from different cultures and backgrounds who sometimes struggle to get through a wedding.

Cindy's background is Dominican and she grew up in New York. Maykel came to Tampa from Cuba when he was 11. She works for an insurance company. He works for an engineering firm.

Cindy says they met at a friend's birthday party pig roast in Orlando while she was a student at the University of South Florida.

She says it wasn't exactly love at first sight but there was an attraction. "We didn't have our first kiss until five months later," she says.

According to the MTV news release "Cindy is the typical intense Dominican bride who wants to micromanage her own wedding and she is dragging Maykel down with her."

There also was a conflict with Cindy and her parents because of their strict Pentecostal religion. It took awhile for her parents to accept the couple's plans for a non-religious ceremony. And there was more family tension over the open bar and party atmosphere planned for the reception.

Cindy says that she broke down emotionally at one point and she is not sure how that will come off during the program.

This MTV channel is broadcast to 7 million Hispanic TV households and 36 million total TV households nationwide, making it the most-widely distributed TV network dedicated to super serving today's bicultural Latino youth.

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813 259-7654.

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