Our story is quite unique in how we met... They say people find love when they're not looking for it or when they least expect it. But in our case, we ended up falling in love while living halfway across the world from each other. It all started a few years ago... At the time, Mark was living abroad in Seoul, South Korea working as an English teacher at CRADA International Academy. Meanwhile I was in the midst of traveling across Asia, visiting my relatives in the Philippines and exploring Korea and Japan. I had planned on spending a few days in Seoul to visit my old high school friend Meghan. It must've been fate, luck, or simply good karma, since Meghan just so happened to be teaching at CRADA alongside Mark. Ultimately it was through Meghan's excellent matchmaking skills that I was able to meet the love of my life that fateful night in Seoul. Hence "Seoul-Mates" :) They say timing is everything when it comes to finding love. I never expected anything serious to come from our short encounter with each other. But the next few days we spent exploring Korea together made such a lasting impression on me. Over the next 22 months or so, we constantly found ourselves texting and communicating almost every single day. Mark would keep me company on the phone while I drove home from work every morning (I work graveyard shift, and am usually super sleepy on my drive home) He would stay up until 3am (Korea time) making sure I made it home safely on my long drive. I somehow knew at this point that I was hopelessly and madly in love with this guy. A year after Korea, we met up again in Thailand, where Mark officially asked me to be his girlfriend. Later on, Mark decided to make the "big move" and relocated from his home in Colorado to be with me in California. I was beyond ecstatic for us to finally start our lives together. The long distance was finally over!!

There is a certain point in every relationship where you wake up, you look at your significant other lying there next to you, and you come to a realization... You realize that you could wake up a thousand more times and you’ll still only want to see their face each and every morning. You’ll realize that the time you spend just lying around in bed is more special than anything else. You’ll realize that your life is no longer an “I” or a “me”, but an “us” and a “we” You’ll realize that... this is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. So one morning, I woke up and I just knew...She was the one for me. They say Hawaii is one of the most romantic places in the world, so in Dec 2017, we booked a trip to paradise for Marcy’s 30th birthday. It was on the beautiful island of Maui that I planned to pop the question. On that faithful day, we ventured the ‘Road to Hana’ a long, windy, narrow road that made Marcy extremely carsick and nauseas. After a fun day of sight seeing and adventure, we finally arrived to Haleakala National Park where we hiked the Pipiwai Trail. The hike took us past several waterfalls, pools, and a massive bamboo forest, all culminating at Waimoku Falls: a stunning 400-foot waterfall. As we were hiking up to see this massive waterfall, another group of hikers encouraged us to go past the “Do Not Trespass” sign in order to see the full view. Usually we aren’t ones to break the rules, but I knew this was the time and the place. Once we reached the bottom of the waterfall, I had Marcy stand atop a rock while I set up the camera and tripod to take a self timed photo of us. In reality, I was framing the scene so I could record that faithful moment. Luckily she was too distracted by the breathtaking waterfall to even notice me getting the ring out of our backpack. I ran up next to her, dropped down on one knee, gave her a short speech, and said the four biggest and most important words of my life. “Will you marry me?”