We hope everyone is staying healthy and safe. Our wedding will not be on April 19 as planned and has been postponed to October 4. We are crossing our fingers that we are able to celebrate with you all by then. Stay safe, stay sane, and we hope to see you soon.
It was a really chilly, but beautiful day in Long Beach. I remember, because I kept saying to Allen that it’s SUCH a nice day out and the restaurant offered us fleece blankets (we happily accepted). I let Allen plan the date, knowing I’d plan the rest of our lives. J/k .. maybe? He decided on The Long Beach Museum of Art (who was I to tell him I don't care for museums ^_^) and we ate at the oceanside restaurant on campus. It was SUUUUUCH a nice day. When I first saw Allen that day, the first thought that went through my head was, “I guess he’s not getting a hug.” LOL I decided long ago that I would give someone a hug when I first meet them to avoid the “are we hugging or shaking hands?” tango. I saw him across the street, and when the light turned green, he walked to the middle of the street to meet me (it would've been awkward to hug in the middle of the street!). I think most guys would’ve just waited until I crossed, but not Allen. He met me halfway with 3 banh tieus in tow. To this day, he constantly meets me halfway (and most times more...).
We met how many couples meet nowadays: via right-swipes on a quirkily-named dating app. What stuck out for me was how comfortable Marie seemed to be with herself, from the confident wackiness she exuded in her pictures, to her extremely descriptive and detailed profile as to who she was and what she was looking for. Though it felt a bit daunting to message her initially, I immediately forgot about such trepidations once the conversations started flowing. A couple days into messaging one another, I felt that satisfying "click" you feel when you know you've connected with someone special. Every interaction after just reinforced that feeling, and by the end of our first date, I couldn't help saying to myself, "I think she's the one." It wouldn't take that much longer for me to stop thinking and start knowing.
Allen knew early on that Marie was the one for him, as early as a-month-and-a-half-into-the relationship early on, but perhaps even earlier based on His Story. Marie was trying to figure out what Allen had planned for her that coming Sunday, a day he told Marie to block out weeks in advance. She peppered him questions, one of them being, “Are we taking engagement pictures?” Marie LHAO then and she’s LHAO now as she types this. “No, but we’ll get there,” he said with a nervous chuckle. Marie probably felt the same not too long after, or perhaps even the same time if she had the nerve to ask that kind of question. When they took a wrong turn into a neighborhood, Marie also asked Allen, “Are you buying me a house?” [Marie can get really awkward with surprises.] Well, Allen managed to surprise Marie at a coffee shop on a chilly December night. They had already planned to go to a coffee shop to take pictures for their Save-the-Dates. Confused? [See above. They knew they were getting married.] When Marie asked Allen if they could go to her nephew’s recital that day, Allen said yes, but was insistent on still driving down to Fullerton afterwards. Marie was none the wiser. Allen arrived first and ordered the drinks and told Marie to find a seat when she arrived with her sister. When the drinks came, Marie was a little annoyed that Allen had ordered two coffee lattes. He was supposed to order a matcha latte for Marie. Marie sent Allen back inside to order another one. When he came out with the matcha latte, Marie was, again, a little annoyed that Allen had gotten the lip of the cup dirty. Poor Allen was probably shaking from nerves.
Marie proceeded to take pictures of their drinks for the Save-the-Dates. When she turned around, Allen was gone. She wanted to take pictures of them cupping the mugs. Annoyed yet again, she sees him inside ordering another drink. Perhaps he’s ordering another matcha latte and will keep the mug clean this time. He comes back out and says that the barista is going to bring out the drink. When the barista came out, Marie saw him bringing out the drink in a paper cup. You guessed it, annoyed yet again, she thought to herself, “Oh great, what am I going to do with a paper cup?!” Allen takes the cup from the barista and hands it over to Marie and asks her to hold it first. He tells her that he chose that specific date because it was auspicious and spews out other sweet nothings. When he couldn’t think of any more of his forgotten speech, he tells her to open the lid while he drops down to one knee. She said okay.