Our story begins 7 years ago - June 22, 2013 - two days before Gene's birthday. In his two years in Los Angeles, he has managed to build up some friends and a few came out to celebrate. Jiyeon was back home for the summer from med school in Chicago, and her friend Ruth invited her to a night out. This is when Jiyeon and Gene first met, but it wasn't exactly love at first sight. Through the noise, crowds, alcohol, and general chaos, the two barely interacted. But the introduction was enough for the night, and it turned out to be only the first seed. Fast forward to 2018. Ironically, it's summer and Gene's birthday is around the corner again. Through the modern power of social media, Gene reconnected with Jiyeon on Instagram when he slid into her DMs. This set the wheels in motion for a lifetime of continued stories, and these will last much longer than just a day.

Jiyeon is hard to surprise - she's always alert and notices everything. Like, every little thing. EVERY THING. So...this clearly wasn't a job for one person, and Gene had to call in support. The other Jean in Jiyeon's life created a nice cover by inviting us to a fancy corporate event hosted by her law firm. This "event" would be held at the US Bank tower in Downtown LA on Super Bowl Sunday, expecting the building would be empty. Unfortunately, the US Bank Tower is also a major tourist attraction and nobody outside of the US cares about football. A proposal that was supposed to be private and intimate ended up being theater for a crowd of European tourists, but Jiyeon was still surprised, said yes, and we also got a free video recording with Italian commentary. Afterwards, we celebrated with our closest friends, including a few who flew in from other cities. Just a few weeks later, the world shut down due to Covid-19. Since then, we've had to deal with many challenges, including planning a wedding with constantly shifting guidelines. Finally, after a year and 7 months of engagement, one venue change, and two date changes, we are so excited to finally get married and celebrate with our closest family and friends. We can't wait to see everyone soon!