Wedding Date on May 18, 2019

How did the couple meet? We met online. It was spring, 2014 and I was finally ready to date again. I was previously engaged—and when that relationship didn’t work out, it took some healing to get to a good place. And I wasn’t sure what to expect signing on to a dating service. It was very new and against the grain of what I’ve been taught about dating. When I found out Vince was from Diamond Bar, the only word that came to mind was “far”. I enjoyed our phone conversations so much that I agreed to the date despite feeling pretty confident that a relationship that requires me to drive easily over an hour in LA traffic was never going to work. He picked me up and I remember his smile—he has the best smile. There’s a genuine warmth and kindness that radiates from Vince. After dinner and a couple of drinks, we met up again the next night and then a couple of days after…and here we are. And it was me who eventually moved to Diamond Bar. When people ask why I moved, I joke around and say I did it because of Half & Half boba (but we all know I moved for love). It’s really true what they say when you meet the right person—it’s so easy. We are extremely different people; different interests, different temperaments and even different views on religion. But despite this, we have a common respect and understanding about each other and it’s really helped uncomplicate the complicated parts of our relationship. How did they get engaged? We were on a weekend getaway. And we’ve done this before whenever we needed a break—he just uses his extra hotel points and we drive to a destination. So I really didn’t think anything of it. La Jolla is a place that we enjoy visiting whenever we head to San Diego. So he asked me to navigate us to this spot in La Jolla that we frequent. Well I completely botched that and we ended up in a different part of La Jolla that was full of bars. The sun was starting to set and he wanted to back track 5 miles to our original spot, and at this point I’m irritated because “why not stay?”. To me a street lined with bars sounded like a fun time and at that point we were going to miss the sunset either ways. But we backtrack. We get to our spot and he wants to go on the beach. It’s November. And it’s cold. And I’m not about to get sand in my shoes. He insists and so I grudgingly drag myself after him as he picks a spot to catch the fast fading sunset. We get to a nice area on the beach and start talking when a large quinceanera party stumbles on our same spot and decides that this too, is the perfect place for them to take photos. Vince wants to move, and again I complain but follow him closer to the water. He chooses our 2nd spot on the beach, he starts talking but is quickly drowned out by a group of yelling children running around that literally appear out of thin air. So we walk further out and are practically on the water as we step in puddles to avoid the noise. I remember this moment in memory very vividly—the sun has just hit the horizon and is a beautiful neon-orange hue that illuminates the sky. He is finally able to talk, uninterrupted and that was when I realized what was about to happen and start to cry. Then he tries to kneel…but realizes he can’t cause of the water and so he crouches—I am laughing remembering him crouching as he opens the ring box. It was just us. And it was perfect. All of it. Was there anything really unique or surprising about their wedding? Our venue was pretty special. We weren’t that couple that felt we needed to hit 20 different reception venues to choose the perfect spot. We just wanted to settle on one that wouldn’t break the bank and can hold the insane amount of family attending. Hangar 21 was the 2nd venue we visited. It felt great from the start. As a designer, I loved the idea of starting with a blank canvas and Vince loved the uniqueness of the venue. If we had any doubts in our mind (extremely little if any) on securing the hangar, they told us that renting the space came with a grand entrance on a helicopter. I mean, how could we not? We took the paperwork home and signed it.