We both grew up in the suburbs of LA and Orange County. We both left our homes for medical school. Daniel went to Milwaukee, and Allison went to Palo Alto. Fortunately for both of us, our residencies brought us back to LA. The first time we met was at the VA hospital for orientation during intern year. Daniel was immediately attracted to Allison. It took a couple of more interactions for Allison to even remember who Daniel was! We started hanging out with our intern class, and started seeing each other more often. After one of these group outings, Daniel wanted to get to know Allison better, so he asked her out on a hike. He was hoping she wouldn't invite anyone else, and fortunately, she didn't! After that, we started hanging out more and more.
We hung out by ourselves quite a few times, but both of us never formally considered them to be "real" dates. It wasn't until a few weeks later that Daniel asked Allison on a "real" date. We went out with our intern class one night, and left pretty late. Daniel made a bet that Allison wouldn't wake up in time to go to Catalina Island the next day with her parents. Well, Allison did and Daniel lost the bet. The bet was treating the winner to dinner, so did he really lose? :p Allison's favorite restaurant is SUGARFISH, so the plan was to go out to dinner there in a few days. The next day in the afternoon, Daniel gets a text from Allison saying that she was going to SUGARFISH that night with Lisa. Whatttttt???? Are we canceling our date? That was what Daniel was thinking. The date wasn't cancelled. Lisa was Allison's roommate at the time, and Allison wanted to take her to SUGARFISH because she's never been. Daniel changed restaurants to Skylight Gardens in Westwood. Allison then asked if we could do yoga before dinner. Daniel never did yoga before, so he was a little hesitant, but also happy to spend more time with Allison. Allison sends Daniel a list of Do's and Don'ts during yoga, and the first thing on the list was "You may fart during yoga." Well, that certainly did not help Daniel's nerves. Fortunately, Daniel didn't fart during yoga :). After yoga, we then went to the restaurant, which Daniel had made a reservation. Daniel knew all along that the whole night was a real date, but it wasn't until Allison got to the restaurant and realized a reservation had been made, that she got the sense it was a real date! Things went well at dinner, and we walked back to Allison's apartment. Daniel kissed Allison on the cheek and said goodnight <3
Daniel kissed Allison on the cheek during their first date, but the first real kiss was a few dates later. We went to Griffith Observatory after dinner, and had a good time looking at the stars and geeking out to astronomy. Daniel had a couple of good chances to kiss Allison, but was too nervous and let them slip by. It was almost closing time, and time was running out! So we went outside to one of the balconies, and we had our first kiss under the stars :)
The proposal occurred on the 3rd year anniversary of our first date. Daniel planned a whole day of fun around LA. The day started with a home cooked breakfast of eggs with tomatoes (same breakfast that Daniel cooked for Allison before). Then, we went to Griffith Observatory where we had our first kiss. We then had lunch, and then a couple's massage. Afterwards, we rested up for a bit, and then went to Malibu to go hiking at Corral Canyon hike, which we've hiked up many times. Midway up the hike, there is an overlook that has a gorgeous view of the ocean. Daniel had asked David (best man) and his wife to set up a small picnic area in preparation for the proposal. As we got close to the overlook, Daniel put a blindfold on Allison and led her to the picnic area. In the background, our favorite songs were playing. We sat down, and Daniel took off the blindfold. Allison was surprised! We had some wine and snacks, and then Daniel brought out a photo book. This photo book was given to Allison as a 1st year anniversary gift. As we flipped through the book, we saw that it was updated to include the subsequent two years. Towards the end of the book, there were pictures of Daniel at dinner with Allison's parents asking for their permission to marry her. It included a letter to Allison's parents, written in Vietnamese (with help from Trinh), about Daniel's intentions to marry Allison, his love for her, and his promise to always take care of her. Then, we both stood up, and Daniel knelt down on one knee, and proposed to Allison <3