Like most couples nowadays, Kevin and I met through an online dating app. However, it took a month for us to actually meet in-person after we started talking, as he was suffering from a hip injury and was unable to walk. In hindsight, that incident gave both of us more time to get to know each other. When we finally saw each other for the first time at a café in Granada Hills, we talked for quite a while that we were even late to evening work and class. From that first meeting, I could already sense a connection beyond love at first sight— it felt more like a comforting familiarity, a gentle recognition that our paths were meant to intertwine somehow. And in that simple exchange of glances and conversation, our story unfolded… with all its turns and difficulties that comes with navigating a relationship between two humans with very different personalities. We’ve had our ups and downs like any other couple, but we would not have grown as individuals and grow in love with one another without the grace of God. — Rizza

I have a bad habit of not being able to sleep the night before major events. The night before I planned to propose, that same insomniac nervousness or anticipation was keeping me awake. Rizza would tell me later that she had a feeling I would propose that day, so she couldn't sleep either. So it was two highly sleepy individuals that would board the Amtrak down to San Diego that day so we could visit a bakery that had been on our restaurant bucket list for months. Despite the sleep deprivation, though, everything went almost exactly according to plan: I sat her down and had her read a card I had written for her while I pretended to grab a napkin behind her. At the end, the card instructed her to turn around, where I was kneeling with the ring. Rizza says that she was so tired that she doesn't quite remember what she was feeling or thinking in the moment, but when watching back the video taken by a random stranger, I think we can both see that we were both, in Rizza's words, "incandescently happy." — Kevin